What He Knew
by Gillian Leigh
Summary: UPDATED 11.28.04 COMPLETE!What if Skinner had been abducted instead of Mulder? What would become of the X-Files? Of Mulder and Scully? And why would he have been taken in the first place? Alternate Universe.
1. Skinner?

**Title**: What He Knew

**Author**: Gillian Leigh

**Summary**: What if Skinner had been abducted instead of Mulder? What would it mean for the X-Files and for Mulder and Scully themselves? Why would he have been abducted in the first place? Post-Requiem.

**Disclaimer**: They're not mine. If they were, would I be writing this?!

**_Author's Notes_**_: The chapters will be a long time coming with this one. I have many ideas, but I'm having a hard time getting them down on paper and balancing my hectic end-of-the-year school schedule. _

-------x-------

_Dana Scully's Apartment_

            Dana Scully was having a very hard time believing what she was hearing. She shook her head as though to clear it, and then looked Mulder in the eyes and said,

            "Wait, so you're sure Skinner was abducted?" Mulder closed his eyes and sighed.

            "_Yes_. I've been telling you that for ten minutes," he said, with aggravation in his tone. Scully glared at him.

            "Don't take that tone with me, Mulder. I'm just trying to get some clarification here," she snapped. He was instantly apologetic.

            "Sorry. I just... I went through a lot in Oregon. That case stirred up memories to begin with, and now this whole ordeal with Skinner going missing. I don't know what will become of the X-Files, or if Skinner will even be returned alive…" Scully nodded.

            "I'm sorry I snapped at you," she said. "My emotions have been a little wacky lately." Mulder bowed his head. He looked utterly defeated.

            "This is all my fault. If only I hadn't turned my back on him…" She reached out and touched his hand.

            "Mulder, look at me." After a moment's hesitation, his eyes met hers. "There was nothing you could've done to prevent this. You didn't know they would go after Skinner. All of our evidence pointed to former abductees being taken. You couldn't have known they would take Skinner..." She closed her eyes as a wave of nausea flooded over her, attempting to make it go away. She hated that they called it morning sickness when it came at any time of the day. Unable to wait for it to pass, she muttered,

            "Excuse me, Mulder," before bolting into the bathroom and throwing up what little food she had managed to keep down during the day. By the time she had dragged herself to a standing position and was wiping her face and cheeks with a damp cloth, she caught Mulder's reflection in the mirror as he stood behind her in the doorway to her bathroom, looking concerned and frightened. She cringed mentally; it looked like she had to tell him.

            "We need to talk," she said, guiding him back to the living room. They both sank down onto the couch, and Scully took his hand in hers.

            "What's going on, Scully?" Sighing, she said,

            "I've been trying to find a way to tell you this...but I guess I'll just have to come right out and say it." There was a pause as Mulder's eyes locked with hers. With a level, even voice, Scully calmly said, "Mulder, I'm pregnant." She swore his jaw nearly hit the floor.

            "Oh my God, Scully. That's amazing!" he exclaimed. She paused again, knowing she needed to assure him, though there shouldn't be any doubt.

            "You're the father," she said quickly. Scully had never seen him react to anything like this before. She'd never seen him so happy.

            "So it was that night?" he asked. She nodded, and her gaze dropped to the floor. "Scully?" he said.

            "Yes?" she said, looking up. Before she had time to react, Mulder was kissing her. That was their first romantic contact since the night the baby was conceived. They got scared, after that. They were afraid of the changes it would bring, and Scully had feared what it would do to their relationship. She knew Mulder feared it too. Their fears disappeared, and they melted into one another.

            "I've never made love to a pregnant woman," Mulder mumbled in her ear as she removed his belt. She smiled and kissed him again before replying,

            "Looks like it's your lucky day." He smiled. Indeed it was.

_Georgetown__Central__Square__Park___

            Mulder sat on a bench in the park, watching all the other joggers. He'd left at just after five to begin his daily jog, and had decided that he would take a break. As he relaxed, he smiled at the sight of a couple jogging as the husband pushed a jogging stroller with a young child inside. That could be him and Scully one day.

            "I thought I'd never find you." He looked up to see Scully jogging toward him. She smiled and slowed to a walk a few yards from him.

            "Shouldn't you be taking it easy? Is running safe for you and the baby?"

            "I'm fine, Mulder. I talked to my doctor, and she recommends moderate exercise; she says that jogging is a good idea, and perfectly safe for me and the baby," Scully said. "Right now, you're the one I'm worried about. I know you feel responsible for what happened to Skinner, and I can only imagine how much you're beating yourself up over this." She seated herself beside him. He sighed.

            "I _do_ blame myself, but what's bothering me the most is _why_ he would've been taken. Why Skinner? Why not me? You told me about the anomalous brain activity that was the common link between the abductees, but Skinner had never experienced that, and he wasn't an abductee. You and I fit those two criteria, but not him," Mulder said, looking at her. "I can't understand why they would take him."

            Scully sighed. "I know, Mulder. I don't understand it either, but we _will_ find him. And we'll find out why this happened to him. We can't give up." She took his hand in hers and rubbed her thumb over his knuckles.

            "What's going to happen to us at work, Scully? What's going to happen to the X-Files with Skinner gone? Kersh will be in charge, and who knows what kind of hell that could create?"

            "Let's not talk about this here," she whispered, rising to her feet. "We'll go back to my place and order in. I've been having a craving for pizza these last two days." Mulder smiled at her and rose off the bench. The pair walked out of the park in the direction from which they came.

_J. __Edgar__Hoover__FBI__Building___

            As Mulder and Scully walked side by side toward Deputy Director Kersh's office they passed Skinner's office. Mulder felt physically ill as he watched the man uniformed in custodial garb removed the name plate from the door. He stopped walking and watched for a moment, and Scully put her hand on his shoulder.

            "C'mon, Mulder," she said quietly.

            "Are you going to tell Kersh that you're--" Mulder began, but Scully cut him off.

            "No. He can't know. At least not for now... he'll put me behind a desk and we can't find Skinner if I'm stuck behind a desk," she replied in a whisper. They came to Kersh's door, and Mulder pulled it open.

            "Agent Mulder, Agent Scully, please have a seat. Deputy Director Kersh will be with you in a moment," Kersh's perky secretary Elise said.

            "Thank you," Mulder responded for the both of them, and they sank into chairs as they waited for the Deputy Director. Scully closed her eyes and took a deep breath through her nose, wishing that the Director had scheduled the meeting for any other time but mid-morning. That was when her morning sickness was at its worst.

            "You okay?" Mulder asked. She opened her eyes and looked at him.

            "I'm fine," she replied, feeling more nauseas as she said it. The fact that she was nervous about this meeting with Kersh didn't help settle her stomach either. She grimaced; all she needed was to have to run from the room in the middle of their meeting and throw up. It would prompt a line of questioning she was not ready to deal with yet.

            "Agent Mulder, Agent Scully." The pair looked up to find Kersh standing before them. They rose to their feet. "Please come into my office," Kersh continued.

            Following Kersh into his office, Scully tried to ignore the fact that she was lightheaded and that Mulder was watching her worriedly. Once inside, Kersh motioned for them to seat themselves in the chairs in front of his desk, and Mulder pulled out Scully's chair for her. She mumbled her thanks and sat down. Mulder seated himself, and then the pair turned their attention to the Director.

            "I'm assuming that you know that this meeting is in regards to Assistant Director Skinner's disappearance from Bellefleur, Oregon," he began, and both agents nodded.

            "Yes, Sir," Mulder responded for both of them. He glanced at Scully out of the corner of his eye, who was growing paler by the minute as she desperately tried to suppress the urge to run from the room and vomit.

            "Are you alright, Agent Scully?" Kersh asked, eyeing her warily.

            She swallowed, and said, "I'm afraid I don't feel very well, Sir. Will you excuse me for a minute? I need a drink of water or something..." Kersh had barely nodded affirmatively before she was out of her chair and darting out of the office.

            Both men watched her go.

            "Is she going to be alright?" Kersh asked of Mulder, who responded with a lie he'd already used on Maggie Scully and the Gunmen.

            "She's just got a touch of the flu..."

            She returned moments later, looking better than she had.

            "Are you going to be able to continue with this meeting, Agent Scully?" Kersh questioned pointedly. She squirmed mentally under his gaze.

            "Yes Sir, I'll be fine," she replied, sinking into her chair again.

            "You two were the last two people to see the Assistant Director before his disappearance from Oregon, and we're going to need your cooperation in the search for him," Kersh continued, looking at the two of them.

            "You seem to be regarding us as suspects, _Sir,_" Mulder said. Fortunately for him, Kersh missed the insinuating tone he used.

            "There's an agent in charge who is going to require your cooperation to maximize the chances of finding A.D. Skinner safe and well," he continued, ignoring Mulder. "This Agent's name is John Doggett, and he's my task force leader. I've told him to expect the two of you this morning. And if you say anything in your statements about alien abductions or anything of the like, you'll both find yourselves looking for new jobs. You're dismissed."

            Mulder and Scully rose out of their chairs and left Kersh's office, not saying a word to one another until they were in the elevator.

            "He thinks we were involved in Skinner's disappearance," Mulder said, sighing and letting his head fall back against the elevator wall.

            "Well, whatever he thinks, he's not going to find Skinner going by any conventional means. They're not going to find him by combing the woods or dragging rivers," Scully returned.

            "You know that, and I know that, but there isn't another soul in the whole goddamn FBI who's going to believe us," he added as the elevator came to a stop.

            The pair walked side-by-side toward the bullpen, where the investigation was being conducted from. Mulder opened the door for Scully, and they entered the room, and stopped just inside the door, unsure of where to go from there.

            Agent Sanger approached them, and said, "Agent Scully, we'd like you to come on back and speak to Agent Krane. Agent Mulder, you can wait on the wall." Scully followed Sanger back and sat down at a desk, and Mulder sank into a chair against the wall.

            A male agent was seated two chairs away from Mulder, and glanced over at him.

            "You must be Agent Mulder," he said. Mulder regarded him skeptically.

            "Yes, I am," he replied. "And you are?"

            "John Doggett," the man returned, extending his hand. Mulder offered his hand to Doggett and said,

            "Ah, Kersh's Task Force Leader." Doggett nodded.

            "Yup, that'd be me," he said. The two were silent for a moment, and then Doggett continued. "So you and Agent Scully have been partners for a while, right?" Mulder knew it was in his best interest to proceed with caution where this Doggett-character was concerned.

            "Yes. We've been partners for right years now."

            "And you'd say that you know her pretty well?" Doggett continued. Mulder was getting aggravated.

            "As well as I should after working with her for as long as I have," he replied shortly. Doggett leaned in closer and lowered his voice.

            "Do you think she could've been involved in the Assistant Director's disappearance?" Mulder's eyebrows went up, and he felt the anger welling up inside of him.

            "No, I don't, and I don't appreciate your insinuation that she was," he said loudly, and Scully looked up, locking eyes with him.

            "Calm down, Agent Mulder, I'm just trying to find the Assistant Director, same as you are," Doggett responded. "Please sit down." Mulder sat back down and looked up to see Scully still watching him worriedly. After a moment she turned her attention back to Agent Krane. Mulder then looked at Doggett.

            "Well we're not going to find him sitting in this damn office," he said, rising up off the chair.

            Sitting opposite Agent Krane, Scully watched Mulder leave, and flinched when the door slammed behind him. Agent Krane got up and ordered two agents to go after Mulder.

            Sighing, Scully cradled her head in her hands and said only, "Mulder..."

-------x-------

Additional Author's Notes: Um, so yeah, I've noticed that approximately 99.7% of my stories have pregnancies, babies and/or proposals and weddings in them... But this one isn't going to be all mushy, I promise.

-------x-------


	2. Just a Headache

**Title**: What He Knew

**Author**: Gillian Leigh

**Summary**: What if Skinner had been abducted instead of Mulder? What would it mean for the X-Files and for Mulder and Scully themselves? Why would he have been abducted in the first place? Post-Requiem.

**Disclaimer**: They're not mine. If they were, would I be writing this?!

**_Author's Notes_**_: The chapters will be a long time coming with this one. I have many ideas, but I'm having a hard time getting them down on paper and balancing my hectic end-of-the-year school schedule. _

-x-

_Arizona__Desert_

            "I may not personally know A.D. Skinner, but I _know_ that it was him I saw up there," Doggett said, gesturing upward to the cliff that "Skinner" supposedly walked off of. "And I _saw_ him walk himself backward and fall off that cliff and land right _there_." Mulder shook his head, and Scully walked over to the point of impact and gestured to the ground.

            "Agent Doggett, I know what you think you saw, but there is no way that a man could survive a fall like that and get up and walk away. If he somehow managed to survive such a fall, he certainly wouldn't be able to _run_ away, as you claim that Assistant Director Skinner did." Doggett ran his hands over his face.

            "I _saw_ him go over that cliff, Agent Scully! I didn't hallucinate him for God's sake!"

            "What I'd like to know, Agent Doggett, is how you knew to come here in the first place? What made you choose a school in the middle of the Arizona Desert? A speck on the map?" Doggett crossed his arms.

            "I could ask you the same thing, Agent Mulder," he replied, crossly. "As far as I knew, you and Agent Scully were not given the same information that I was." Mulder was getting angry.

            "Our information came from our knowledge of previous X-Files and our past experience. Your turn," Scully replied. Mulder had to refrain from cracking a smile. She was full of venom after having to deal with a particularly persistent bout of morning sickness.

            "A file on Gibson Praise was slipped under my door when I was working one night," Doggett replied. "I read it over, and decided that Gibson was a relevant link to the so-called 'conspiracy' that you and Agent Mulder have uncovered, and if Skinner was going around getting rid of all of the evidence, Gibson would be evidence."

            "That _file_ is property of the X-Files office, and I believe it was locked in a filing cabinet. So I don't know how it was magically slipped under your door," Mulder spat. Doggett opened his mouth to argue, but Mulder jumped in again. "And furthermore, I'm really starting to question just whose side you're really on, Agent Doggett. Because any evidence we might have that could help us find the Assistant Director seems to disappear before Agent Scully and I arrive, especially since you've become involved."

            "You listen here, Agent Mulder, I don't know why you think I'm the enemy, but I'm here for the same reason as you two. To find the Assistant Director. It's not high school, Agents; I don't really care if you like me or not. I'm here to do my job, and I intend to do just that."

            Both agents watched as he walked away, and Mulder ran a hand through his hair.

            "That man is infuriating," he said. "He's more of a pain in the ass than you were when you first came to work with me."

            Scully punched him in the arm and said, "You're sleeping in your own damn motel room tonight." He cursed under his breath. With the mood she was in, she _would_ make him sleep there. They walked back to the Jeep and Mulder climbed into the driver's seat. Scully flopped down into the passenger seat, and rolled down the window.

            Pulling onto the main road, Mulder took his eyes off the miles of straight highway to glance at his partner.

            "Are you feeling any better?" he asked. She sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose.

            "No," she replied, honestly. "I never expected to have morning sickness this terrible."

            "When we get back to the motel you should lie down for a while," he added.

            "Mulder... stop babying me," she snapped. "It's not like I'm a China doll, for God's sake! I'm not going to shatter into a million pieces." Mulder gritted his teeth, and fought the urge to snap at her.

            "Listen, Scully. I'm not trying to 'baby' you, and I'm sorry if it bothers you, but I just don't like the idea of you running all over the country, stress-levels off the charts in search of the missing Assistant Director. You've been going non-stop for seven weeks now, and I'm worried about what effect it could have on your health and the baby. I don't know what I would do if something happened to you..." He trailed off, keeping his eyes on the road.

            "I'm sorry," she sighed. "I don't mean to snap at you...I guess it's just the combination of lack of sleep, hormones, the heat, and the fact that I'm swelling in places I would rather not swell... But it still doesn't justify my attitude, and I apologize." He wordlessly accepted her apology, reaching over to take her hand.

            The pair both sat on Scully's bed that night, Mulder at the foot, and Scully leaning against the headboard, each pouring over data that would hopefully help them find Skinner. Raising his eyes from the satellite pictures spread out in front of him to see Scully pick up yet another piece of pizza, fold it in half, and shove it into her mouth. He watched with amazement as she devoured it in less than a minute, and wiped her hands on a napkin before turning her full attention back to the documents in her lap. Mulder shook his head, and reached over to get himself another piece of pizza, only to find it empty. He sighed, causing Scully to look up at him.

            "What?" she queried.

            "There's no more pizza. I would've gotten two pies if I had known you'd be eating five pieces rather than your usual one or two," he replied. Her cheeks flushed.

            "Sorry..." She smiled sheepishly.

            "It's alright; I'm just not used to you pigging out. You usually eat like a bird," he replied.

            "You forget, I'm eating for two now," she replied, resting a hand on her stomach and splaying her fingers. He smiled at her.

            "And I'd have to imagine that this baby's got my appetite." She rolled her eyes.

            "You hit that one right on the head," she mumbled. Picking up the medical data sheet, she studied it one last time and shook her head. "There's absolutely nothing in Skinner's medical files that would give us any indication as to why he was taken. The only thing that is noteworthy at all is that he was hospitalized for chest pain last year--twice. But there wasn't anything anomalous anywhere else. Nothing like any of the abductees in any of the x-files we've ever investigated," she gestured to the dozens of files spread out on the floor and bed of her motel room.

            "This UFO data that they guys pulled for me is pretty much useless as well. There's no detectable pattern that this ship, or ships, is following. We don't even know if this is the one Skinner's on, or if some other one has picked up where it left off," Mulder said, pinching the bridge of his nose. Scully could tell immediately that he wasn't only pissed off, but in pain.

            "Mulder? Mulder are you okay?" He raised both hands to his forehead, and clutched it. Scully reached out and grabbed his arm, but he pushed her away, almost knocking her off the bed. "What's wrong?" she asked, regaining her balance and moving toward him again. He grabbed her hand as she reached out to him, not letting her touch him.

            "Don't touch me, Scully," he hissed, more harshly than he had intended. She backed off.

            "Is this what happened to you when you were near the artifact?" she questioned, feeling the same panic rising in her chest that she had felt in Africa. He shook his head.

            "It's just a headache Scully, don't worry yourself. I just need some aspirin," he replied. She didn't look convinced.

            "Mulder..."

            "Just get me some aspirin, please," he said. She begrudgingly got up off the bed and walked into the bathroom. She was rifling through her bathroom bag when she heard a thump.

            "Mulder? Are you alright?" she called. Getting no response, she stuck her head out the door, and gasped. The bottle of aspirin fell to the floor, forgotten, as she rushed to the side of her partner, who now lay unconscious on the floor beside her bed.

-x-

A/N: A bit of a cliffhanger for ya there, kids. I know; I know. Everyone hates them, but they keep you reading, and God knows I'm notorious for them... :oP Well, at any rate, let me know how I did!


	3. Hospital

Title: What He Knew

Author: Gillian Leigh

Summary: What if Skinner had been abducted instead of Mulder? What would it mean for the X-Files and for Mulder and Scully themselves? Why would he have been abducted in the first place? Post-Requiem.

Disclaimer: They're not mine. If they were, would I be writing this?!

-x-

            "Cancer," Scully said, before Doggett could even pose the question.

            "They're sure?" he asked, sinking into a chair beside her in the waiting room. She nodded, and placed her head in her hands.

            "He experienced what the doctors called 'anomalous brain activity' earlier in the year. They think this could have stemmed from it." Massaging her temples, Scully tried to ignore the nausea that was rising in her throat again. This anxiety could _not_ be good for her baby.

            "Agent Scully, you don't look so good," Doggett said, resting a hand on her shoulder. "Maybe you should go back to the hotel and get some rest."

            "I can't do that, Agent Doggett. I'm Mulder's doctor; they need me here to answer questions about his medical history." Doggett opened his mouth to protest, but Scully spoke again. "Where's Gibson?"

            "With Agent Krane. He's being guarded at all times. Don't worry," he responded. She nodded.

            "Thank you," she replied. Yawning, she ran her hands once over her face.

            "What do we do?" Doggett questioned. Scully faced him, reflexively arching an eyebrow.

            "About what, Agent Doggett?"

            "About Mulder."

            "They need to run some more tests," she said. She was exhausted; the fact that it was nearly three in the morning was starting to catch up to her. "There's nothing left to do but wait." Doggett nodded, and turned his attention to the people passing by. It amazed him how alive hospitals were at night. They sat in silence.

            Scully's mind was in a terrible place, though none of it showed through her face. She kept going over the possibilities. '_What will I do if he dies?_' she thought. _'I can't raise this baby alone...'_

            "Scully?" she looked up to find Doggett standing before her, brandishing a cup of coffee. "You look like you could use it."

            "Thank you," she said, taking the cup from him. She was prepared to take a sip, and then she stopped herself, and found that she looked at it longingly.

            "Is something wrong?" Doggett asked.

            "I can't have caffeine," she replied.

            "Oh," he said, offering his hand for the cup. "I didn't know. I just assumed that you'd take coffee since every other law enforcement official I've ever met is addicted to the stuff." She smiled weakly and handed him the cup.

            "I'm addicted myself, I have to admit. But I can't have any...for medical reasons."     "High blood pressure?" he questioned.

            "Something like that..." she returned. A lab-coated doctor appeared in the hallway, and stopped before the two of them.

            "Dr. Scully?" he said. She shot to her feet.

            "Yes, I'm Dr. Scully," she said. The doctor smiled and extended her hand.

            "Hello, I'm Dr. Anders."

            "How is he? How's Mulder?" Scully asked frantically. Dr. Anders smiled slightly, leading Scully away from Doggett.

            "We're done running tests for now, and Mr. Mulder would like to see you," she said.

            "It's definitely cancer?" The doctor's expression sobered.

            "Yes. I'm afraid so. And from the results we've gathered so far, the tumor appears to be inoperable. It's what's called nasopharyngeal mass. It's a small growth between the superior conchea and the sinoidal sinus," she said, keeping her voice low. Scully suddenly felt ill, and it wasn't morning sickness.

            "Oh my God," she croaked. "I think I'm going to be sick. Excuse me..." She bolted down the hallway and into the women's restroom, where she then emptied the contents of her stomach into the toilet bowl. Three years ago, she had said that same sentence to Mulder, as it had been relayed to her by her oncologist. It had almost been her death sentence. She sat back, leaning against the stall door, and cradled her head in her hands. An inoperable brain tumor, in the same place as hers had been, but what she couldn't understand was what brought on Mulder's cancer. Hers had come from the removal of the chip from her neck, and it went away only when the chip was replaced. But Mulder couldn't have had a chip in his neck, could he? Her thought process was interrupted by a knocking and Doggett calling her name once before she heard the door open.

            "Agent Scully, I hope you're alone in there because I'm coming in," he said. She leaned her back against the door, and sighed.

            "Fuck," she muttered before hoisting herself to her feet. She opened the stall door and found herself face to face with Doggett.

            "Are you alright?" he questioned. She nodded.

            "I'm fine," she replied, though her voice was undoubtedly shaky. "I'm fine."

            "Agent Scully..." Doggett began in a chastising tone. Exhausted, nauseas, hormonal and terrified, Scully snapped.

            "Agent Doggett, I don't know who the hell you think you are, but you need to back off. I am a grown woman, and I can take care of myself just fine. I don't need you worrying over me every time I so much as sneeze the wrong way. You're not my partner and you're most certainly not my mother. We barely know each other, and everything that you've done recently hasn't exactly inspired my confidence in you, so I suggest that you leave me the hell alone. Are we clear?"

            "Yes, we're clear," he said, turning on his heel and walking out of the bathroom. Realizing that she had been unduly harsh, Scully thought for a moment of going after him, but stopped when she was hit with another wave of nausea. She grumbled under her breath and ducked back into the stall.

            She exited the bathroom, moments later, and turned the corner to find Dr. Anders looking at her in concern.

            "Are you alright, Dr. Scully? Maybe I should be treating you as well," she said, speaking quietly to Scully, who forced a smile.

            "I'm fine. Can I trust you to keep something in confidence?" Scully said, deciding telling her would be easier than keeping it from everyone.

            "Of course," Dr. Anders replied.

            "I'm pregnant," Scully said, keeping her voice low.

            "I guessed as much," Dr. Anders replied, grinning slightly. Scully smiled too.

            "There are exactly three people who know, and you're one of them, the other two being Mulder and myself."

            "Ah, so it's a well-kept secret."

            "Yes," she said. "One of the few in the world. Now where did you say Mulder's room was?"

            "Straight down the hall, the first door on your left."

            "Thank you," she mumbled, heading down the hall. She paused at his door, and took a deep breath before going inside.

-x-

A/N: At the risk of all of you somehow finding out where I live and storming my house with pitchforks and torches, I'm promising a relatively quick update (I'm hesitant to say quick, because I have two major projects for school due this week), and before you kill me for making Mulder sick, remember that Chris Carter did it to Scully, and that _I_ have the power to make anything happen within the realm of this story. :o) So please read and review.


	4. Charlie

Title: Charlie

Author: Gillian Leigh

Summary: What if Skinner had been abducted instead of Mulder? What would it mean for the X-Files and for Mulder and Scully themselves? Why would he have been abducted in the first place? Post-Requiem.

Disclaimer: They're not mine. If they were, would I be writing this?!

_Georgetown__, __Maryland___

His diagnosis was not good, and Dr. Anders's clinical terms made Scully sick to her stomach again. The prognosis was identical to what hers had been. Her first instinct was to have Dr. Anders check for evidence of a microchip or its removal. Hidden just beneath his hairline, approximately four inches higher than where hers had been, was evidence of an incision.  Mulder himself then ordered an x-ray, and they found that there was no chip present, but there was enough evidence for them to come to the conclusion that there had been one there at one point in time.

            A month later, Scully entered her apartment with a bag of groceries balanced on each hip, and dropped her keys onto the table just inside the door before heading to the kitchen. Placing the bags on the counter, she walked back into the living room and smiled at the sight of Mulder still sleeping on the couch. She covered him more with the blanket and gently kissed his forehead. The chemo drained him terribly. She remembered all too well the vomiting, weakness and often bouts of fever that followed the initial treatment. As she watched him sleep she couldn't help but remember Dr. Zuckerman's prognosis. The phone rang, startling her. She lunged for it so that it didn't wake Mulder.

            "Hello?" she said quietly, ducking into her bedroom.

            "Hi, Dana," her mother said on the other end.

            "Oh, hi Mom," she whispered.

            "Why are you whispering?" Maggie asked.

            "Mulder's sleeping," she replied, closing the bedroom door.

            "How's Fox doing, by the way?" her mother questioned, knowing the seriousness of his condition.

            Scully sighed. "The chemo is hell for him. He hates feeling so weak," she said. Maggie 'mmhmmed' in response.

            "I know this is short notice, but Charlie, Kate and the kids are coming out for dinner tonight. Do you think Fox would feel up to coming with you to the house this evening?" Scully's whole face practically lit up.

            "Charlie's coming up?" she questioned, smiling brightly. Maggie could practically sense her daughter's grin.

            "Yes. Dinner's at seven if you and Fox are up to it," she said. "When he wakes up, tell him I said hello."

            "Okay Mom," Scully said. "Love you."

            "Love you too, darling. Goodbye," Maggie replied.

            "Bye," Scully added, and then hung up. She exited the bedroom all smiles thinking of getting to see her beloved twin brother, and was startled by Mulder's voice.

            "Talking to your other boyfriend were you?" She gasped and almost dropped the phone. "Or was it the pizza guy?" She was going to yell at him for scaring her, but took one look at the grin he was wearing and didn't have the heart. She smiled back.

            "That was my mom. She says hello, and she wanted to invite us for dinner tonight, if you're feeling up to it," she said, placing the phone back in its cradle.

            "I think I feel well enough," he said. "I don't feel so drained today. But how about you? You look exhausted..."

            "I'm alright, just in need of a little nap. I've read that women experience fatigue, especially during the early and late parts of pregnancy, but I never imagined that I would be this tired all the time..." He smiled, and his gaze dropped to her midsection.

            "I'll have to have a long talk with our little Pod Person about making Mommy tired..." He said. She smiled and walked back into the kitchen to put the rest of the groceries away.

            "Do you need any help?" Mulder asked, watching her through the doorway.

            "Nope, I'm fine," she replied, putting the milk in the refrigerator.

            "Okay," he said, and sank into the couch, turning the TV on and flipping through the channels until he found a college basketball game. He didn't realize how tired he still was until he fell asleep on the couch, and Scully did the same beside him moments later.

            The ringing of the phone woke Mulder from his second nap of the day, and Mulder fumbled for it, reaching around Scully who was wedged into the couch with him.

            "Mulder," he mumbled sleepily.

            "Hello Fox, it's Maggie. Did I wake you?"

            "No, I was just resting my eyes," he replied, closing them again as Scully moved her head on his shoulder, tightening her grip around his waist.

            "Well, I was just wondering if you and Dana could do me a favor and pick up a bottle or two of wine on your way over. I'll pay you back when you get to the house... I just realized that I don't have enough here for dinner tonight."

            "Sure," Mulder said. "I'll get a bottle of red and a bottle of white."

            "Thank you, Fox. I'll see you at 7:30."

            "See you then, Maggie," he said, hanging up the phone. He tried to deposit it back in its cradle, and missed, sending it falling to the floor. He sighed and glanced at his watch and decided it would be best to wake Scully so she could do whatever it was she needed to do to get ready. He gently shook her shoulder.

            "Scully...Scully...Dana, wake up," he said, and watched with a smile as she slowly opened her eyes.

            "What is it?" she questioned tiredly.

            "We need to start getting ready to go to your mom's house, and she asked if we could stop along the way and get wine for dinner," he said.

            She sat up and ran a hand through her hair. "I'll jump in for my shower."

            "What should I wear?" Mulder asked as he got to his feet and folded the blanket that had covered them.

            "Just something comfortable. Jeans and a sweater will be fine," she replied. "Did I tell you that Charlie will be there?" Mulder shook his head as he laid the blanket over the arm of the couch.

            "Nope, you didn't." She could sense that he looked a little uneasy.

            "Don't worry Mulder, he's nothing like Bill," she said. "Charlie's always been the most easygoing of all four of us. I can't tell you how many times I told him that he and Missy should've been twins rather than he and I. He'll love you." Mulder sighed. He sure hoped so.

_Maggie Scully Residence_

            As they pulled into her mother's driveway, Scully held the bottles of wine on her lap, and couldn't help but remember that she hadn't as of yet told her mother or any other members of her family about the baby. Or her relationship with Mulder, though she was positive her mother knew about that. Maggie had dropped by one day early in the morning after Mulder had spent the night and Scully hadn't reacted quickly enough to stop Mulder from answering the door in his boxers and a t-shirt.

            They walked up the steps together, and Scully knocked on the door, reaching over to take hold of Mulder's hand just as the door opened and her mother stood on the other side.

            "Dana, Fox, come inside," she said, smiling brightly. As they stepped inside, Scully prayed that her shirt was big enough to hide her condition, and then she plastered on a smile so her mother wouldn't think that there was something wrong.

            "Thank you for picking up the wine, dears," she said, kissing her daughter on the cheek, and then Mulder bent down a little so she could do the same to him. "How're you feeling?" she asked, looking at him with concern.

            "Better. The side effects of the chemo  wore off, and I got to take two good naps today, so I'm full of energy," he replied with a smile that reassured her, and then she turned to her daughter.

            "How about you, sweetheart? You look a little peaked this evening..." Scully opened her mouth to respond, but Charlie intervened, wrapping his arms around her in a bear hug. Mulder hadn't really known what to expect of Charlie, because the only picture that Scully displayed had the four of the Scully children together as teenagers, but he was very surprised to find that Charlie was nearly six-foot-two-inches tall, with dark auburn hair, and a massively muscular build. He swallowed hard, and prayed that Charlie did like him, because if he didn't, he could truly kick his ass.

            "Charlie!" Scully exclaimed, wrapping her arms around him as he lifted her off the floor. "I've missed you."

            "I've missed you too, Danes," he said, setting her down.

            She turned toward Mulder and said, "Charlie, this is Fox Mulder. Mulder, this is my brother, Charlie." The two men shook hands, and Mulder was surprised when Charlie grinned widely at him.

            "Don't look so scared, Mulder. I'm nothing like Bill," he said, and Scully smiled, looping her arm around Mulder's waist. Mulder blushed a little, and then dropped a kiss on top of her head. Maybe this wouldn't be so bad after all.

            The evening went without incident, well, until dinner that is. Everyone had filled their plates, and grace was said, and they were all getting ready to eat when Maggie realized she forgot about the wine.

            "I'll just go get it from the kitchen," she said, rising out of her chair. She brought it in and insisted on serving it to everyone. She got to Scully, who clamped a hand over her glass, and found her heart thudding in her chest. Looked like it was about time to tell them her good news.

            "Dana, are you sure you don't want any?" she asked, studying her daughter peculiarly.

            "Yes Mom, I'm--" she paused when Mulder's cell phone rang shrilly.

            "Excuse me," he said, leaving the table to answer his phone in the other room.

            "--I'm sure," she replied, and fought back a shit-eating grin. "Besides, it's a bad idea to drink while you're pregnant..." Charlie was the first to catch on and he looked at his sister in astonishment. She smiled at him, and he reached across the table and took her hand.

            "Congratulations, Daney," he said quietly. Once Kate, Maggie and Scully's nieces and nephews caught on, there were several minutes of excited congratulations and questions.

            "But I thought you said that the in-vitro fertilization you tried didn't work?" Charlie questioned, not for a moment forgetting his sister's difficulties with fertility.

            "No, it didn't," she said, taking a sip of her water, and wondering what the hell was taking Mulder so long on the phone.

            "But then how..." Maggie began.

            "The good old fashioned way," Scully replied. "I'm due in May."

            "Oh sweetheart," Maggie said, giving her daughter a hug. "I'm so happy for you..."

            "I hate to interrupt," Mulder began, "but Dana and I are going to have to take a rain-check on dinner tonight. We're needed down at the Bureau." Maggie looked positively disappointed.

            "Oh alright, dears. Duty calls I suppose...but congratulations, and this just means you'll have to have us all over for dinner one night," she said, giving Mulder a hug.

            They all said their goodbyes, and Mulder and Scully were congratulated about another hundred times before they could get out the door. 

-x-

Author's Notes: I know; I know, Scully and Charlie are not twins, blah blah blah. But this is an AU fanfic, so I used my artistic license and made them twins. ::sticks tongue out:: So there. And I know this chapter sucks, but it's basically a filler chapter because I felt so guilty about not posting a million and a half years. Let me know what you thought, please, and I'll try not to be so long in updating next time!

-x-


	5. Photos

Title: What He Knew

Author: Gillian Leigh

Summary: What if Skinner had been abducted instead of Mulder? What would it mean for the X-Files and for Mulder and Scully themselves? Why would he have been abducted in the first place? Post-Requiem.

Disclaimer: They're not mine. If they were, would I be writing this?!

_J. __Edgar __Hoover __FBI __Building___

Agent Doggett met them at the employee entrance to the vacant building, and ushered them inside and down the hallway toward the elevator.

"I'm sorry to call you away from dinner," he apologized, not commenting on the fact that they had been dining together. "But there are a few things I need to speak to you about, and I wanted to do it right away." They stepped into the elevator, and Scully looked at Mulder questioningly. He responded with a shrug of his shoulders. He had no idea what was so urgent.

"Agent Doggett, I understand that you're the Task Force Leader on this one, and that we should all be cooperating, but it seems to me that you're utilizing our research and excluding us from the investigation," Scully stated simply. Doggett turned around and looked at her as the elevator doors opened.

"We should be working together," he began, leading them down the hall to the office. "And I'm not trying to exclude you, but while I was working in my office tonight, someone slipped an envelope under my door, much like what happened with Gibson Praise in Arizona." He unlocked the door to his office and flicked on the lights, ushering them inside. Mulder bit back a smile as he locked the door behind him and turned off all of the lights except the one on his desk. So much for being the only paranoid person in the room, he thought to himself.

Retrieving the envelope in question, Mulder and Scully saw that it was an "Inter-Departmental Correspondence" envelope. Scully's eyebrow went up, remembering the same type of envelope that she had encountered... the one from Diana Fowley. Glancing at Mulder, she knew he was thinking of it too. But Fowley was dead. Who was helping them out this time?

"It's all surveillance documents...photos and transcriptions of phone calls and phone records as well," Doggett said, pulling the described items out of the envelope.

"I'm not trying to be rude, Agent Doggett," Mulder began. "But I don't see what any of this has to do with A.D. Skinner's disappearance..."

"If you would give me a chance, Mulder, I'll explain exactly what I believe the relevance of all of these things is to the case. I believe that they might in fact have a very profound connection to A.D. Skinner's disappearance. But if my theory is correct, we won't be hunting aliens anymore; we'll be looking for some very terrestrial suspects," Doggett concluded, handing Mulder the enlarged black and white photos. Scully gasped in surprise.

In every picture, Skinner was talking to the Cigarette Smoking Man or Alex Krycek.

"Oh my God," she said. The photos were obviously taken by someone other than a casual observer. Some were from inside Skinner's office, others his home, but the last was the most shocking to them. In the last picture, Skinner was bent over Mulder, who was unconscious and strapped to that metal table, covered only from the waist down by a sheet. The picture was from the room where they had done the brain surgery on him.

"He was in on all of it," Mulder said, feeling angry and betrayed. "He's been in on it since the beginning."

_Scully's Apartment_

"Agent Doggett, would you like some coffee?" Scully called from her kitchen, looking over her shoulder at the two men who sat on her couch, intently reviewing the case information that they had so far.

"If you're makin' it, I'll gladly take a cup..." he said, rising up off the couch.

"No, no, sit," she ordered, waving her hand at him dismissively. "I've already got the pot brewed. Just tell me how you like it."

"Black with a spoonful of sugar," he replied. "Thank you." She poured his coffee and added the sugar, and then placed it on the tray with her mug of decaf tea and Mulder's cup of coffee and brought it into the living room, setting it on the end table. Her coffee table was currently covered in various documents, pictures, and oddly enough, Skinner's medical charts, which she had previously thought had no relevance at all, but the pieces began fitting together with Doggett's new information.

"I want to have these checked tomorrow to make sure they're authentic," Mulder said, taking his coffee mug from Scully. "Thanks Scully." She nodded.

"I can take them down to the photo lab on the fifth floor. My buddy Jerry works there; he'll squeeze us in as a favor first thing in the morning." Mulder shook his head.

"I've got my own sources... a group of men I trust explicitly. I'll take the photos to them if you don't mind." He didn't make the statement a question, daring Doggett to argue with him. He didn't.

"Alright, Mulder," he replied. "But I have to ask... what did you mean when you said that Skinner had been in on 'it' since the beginning? What was he in on?" Mulder looked over at Scully. They didn't know if they could trust Doggett farther than they could throw him.

"Excuse us for a minute," Scully said, nodding toward Mulder. "I just need to have a word with Mulder."

"Sure," Doggett said. He knew what they were going to discuss; his trustworthiness, what exactly to tell him, what to leave out... Mulder followed Scully into her bedroom, and she closed the door.

"What do we tell him?" Scully asked of him, crossing her arms. His brow creased.

"We can explain my type of cancer to him, and how you had the same thing done to you, and the chip in your neck, and its absence in mine..." he said.

"But nothing about the baby. No one can know yet...well not anyone in the FBI at least..." Scully replied, a hand slipping down to cover her stomach. Mulder smiled.

"No, we won't tell him about the baby. Would you be comfortable telling him about your abduction?" he queried, touching her shoulder. She nodded.

"Sure, we can do that. We should tell him about Africa, and the surgery that those doctors performed on you..." she supplemented. He nodded, and after a moment, he laughed. "What?" she asked, looking at him questioningly.

"After we tell him all of this he'll probably send us for a psych referral..." Mulder said. Scully laughed, and squeezed his hand.

"I'd better make more coffee then," she said. "This will probably take the rest of the night..."

-x-

A/N: Mulder and Scully, as you can tell, have started to trust Doggett, and doubt Skinner's integrity. As you can tell this story doesn't exactly follow the Season Eight timeline...but that's why it's an AU story. I'm sorry the chapters are taking so long, and that this one's so short, but I promise some twists and turns down the road, don't you worry. ;o) Whether you liked it or not, review and let me know what you thought!

-x-


	6. Coffee and Conspiracy

Title: What He Knew

Author: Gillian Leigh

Summary: What if Skinner had been abducted instead of Mulder? What would it mean for the X-Files and for Mulder and Scully themselves? Why would he have been abducted in the first place? Post-Requiem.

Disclaimer: They're not mine. If they were, would I be writing this?!

-x-

            Scully poured the milk into Mulder's coffee and looked at it longingly. That was the hardest thing to adjust to. She could live without alcohol, but she missed her coffee dreadfully, and decaf just wasn't the same. Sighing, she stirred his coffee and carried it and Doggett's coffee into the living room, handing the mugs to the men.

            "None for you, Scully?" Mulder questioned, taking a sip of his coffee.

            "My tea water's heating up," she replied.

            "Still not allowed to have caffeine?" Doggett queried, looking pointedly at Scully. It took a moment for her to remember her conversation with Doggett in the hospital corridor when Mulder was ill.

            "Nope," she replied. "And I can't have any for a few months either..." Doggett nodded and smiled to himself.

            "What is it?" Mulder asked, regarding him peculiarly.

            "Nothing," Doggett replied. "Just remembering something." He thought back to when his ex-wife had been pregnant with their son, Luke. He noticed similarities between her behavior and Scully's, and was sure that he knew Scully's secret. No caffeine, frequent bathroom trips, turning green at the sight of anything other than simple toast at breakfast. Looking at the two of them, Mulder and Scully, together, he had no doubt in his mind who the baby's father was either. "Let's get down to business," he said. "You were going to fill me in on what you meant when you said that Skinner was 'in on it since the beginning'." He sipped his coffee and studied the two of them. Scully was the first to speak.

            "Five years ago, I was taken from my home by a man named Duane Barry, who believed that he had been abducted by aliens multiple times. He didn't want to be taken again and tested, so he believed that if he brought someone new, someone who had not been taken before, that the aliens would be content and leave him alone. He chose me. He watched me, staked out my apartment, and one night when I was home alone, he broke in and kidnapped me." She paused to gauge Doggett's reaction. His eyes were focused on her, as he listening intently, and his coffee cup remained in his hand, the chilling liquid already forgotten. "He took me to a place called Skyland Mountain. There I was taken by what Duane Barry believed to be aliens. Mulder and I later discovered that I was taken by members of a conspiratorial group, a shadow government, who did tests on me. These tests, though I still have only vague memories of them, left me clinging to life, barren and with a chip in my neck.

            "The chip which I discovered three years ago and had removed. Its removal gave me cancer; and inoperable brain tumor. The cancer went into remission only after a chip was once again placed in my neck. The microchip is the link between my cancer and Mulder's." Doggett's eyebrows rose.

            "Scully was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor, a nasopharyngeal mass between the wall over her sinoidal sinus and superior conchae. My diagnosis is the same."

            "Exactly the same?" Doggett questioned.

            "Down to the letter," Mulder replied. "An exam by the doctor in the hospital in Arizona showed a recently healed incision just under the hairline on the back of my neck. There is evidence of the removal of a chip like Scully's."

            "But you said that Scully's cancer was a result of the tests done on her during her abduction... you were never abducted, Agent Mulder..." Doggett argued reasonably. Mulder nodded.

            "I wasn't missing for months like Scully was, but I had a troubling experience in the beginning of last year. I was admitted to the hospital with a brain disorder that the doctors could not identify, and several days into my hospital stay I went missing. When Scully found me later, I had had brain surgery performed on me, and I was in pretty rough shape. We think that the chip in my neck was removed during this round of surgery, and that this cancer is the result."

            "Did you know that you had the chip before then?" Doggett asked. Mulder looked over at Scully, who was dozing on the couch, and then back at him.

            "No. That's also troubling. We don't know when the chip was inserted, or where it came from..." Doggett shook his head. They expected him to believe this?! "I understand that you probably don't believe a word of anything that we just said, but if you read the X-Files, it's all there. Every word of it and more," Mulder added.

            "That picture of Skinner was taken in the place where Mulder's brain was operated on. He told me, while Mulder was missing, that he had no idea where he was or what had happened to him. But if he got inside that facility, he had the means to gain entry and the knowledge that Mulder was being held there," Scully interjected sleepily. Doggett nodded.

            "I understand," he said. "And in light of what you have just told me, and the photos I've received, I'm beginning to think that maybe these men, the ones in the photos with Skinner, are responsible for his disappearance."

            "It's possible that they're involved," Mulder conceded. "But we should talk about this in the morning." He glanced over at Scully, who was sound asleep on the couch.

            "Alright," Doggett said, rising up off the couch. Mulder handed the folders to him, and shook his hand. "I'll drop by your office tomorrow afternoon to see about those photos."

            "See you at work," Mulder said, walking Doggett to the door.

            "Thank Agent Scully for the coffee and hospitality," Doggett said, walking out the door. Mulder closed it behind him and walked over to the couch, gently lifting Scully off of it. He was reminded of the more sound state of sleep her pregnancy brought on when she didn't even stir as he carried her into her bedroom. He set her down on her side of the bed, and debated whether or not he would be spending the night. Scully preferred to have him stay with her because she was worried that he might experience some kind of complications from his cancer. She stirred when he tugged off one of her shoes.

            "Mulder?" she murmured.

            "Bed time," he said, pulling off her other shoe.

            "Oh," she said, waking up a little more. "You don't have to do that... Just get me a nightgown, please." He obliged and pulled his favorite, her teal colored satin negligee out of the drawer and handed it to her. Before she could pull it over her head, he took the opportunity to admire her figure, and smiled when he could see the defined bump that was their baby. She changed into her sleepwear, and crawled under the covers. She was out like a light as soon as her head hit the pillow.

-x-

Author's Notes: I apologize that it's so short, but I wanted to give you at least one more chapter, but I'm planning on taking a break. I've got a terrible case of writer's block. Hopefully my trip to the Jersey shore next week will help get me out of this funk. I have to apologize, because I know chapters have been a long time in between all along with this one, but at the moment I have no inspiration at all for this, so I'm going to put it on the back burner rather than pulling it totally off the sight or pushing through and writing totally crappy chapters.


	7. A New Addition

Title: What He Knew

Author: Gillian Leigh

Summary: What if Skinner had been abducted instead of Mulder? What would it mean for the X-Files and for Mulder and Scully themselves? Why would he have been abducted in the first place? Post-Requiem.

Disclaimer: They're not mine. If they were, would I be writing this?!

_J. __Edgar __Hoover __FBI __Building___

"Mulder, sit down," Scully hissed at her partner in an urgent whisper. She was sleep-deprived from their conspiracy session with Agent Doggett the night before, and hungry, this meeting was cutting into their lunch hour. Well, the meeting _would_ be cutting into their lunch hour, if Deputy Director Kersh had bothered to see them yet.

Kersh's assistant looked up when she had snapped at Mulder, and raised her eyebrows before turning back to her typing. After a moment, he sank into the chair beside Scully, and for the first time, she noticed how pale he was.

"Are you alright?" she asked, studying his face in concern.

"I'm fine," he replied snippily, throwing the phrase she too often used back in her face.

"Mulder..." she started to argue with him.

"Scully, just leave it," he said, avoiding her gaze. Seated in the chair to Scully's left, Doggett watched them, and noticed how strained all conversation between the two had been and how tense they both were.

There was no denying that he was nervous as well, having been called in with them for this meeting. Kersh had not sounded happy when he had called Doggett, and when he caught up with Mulder and Scully in the elevator, they said the same thing. Not one of them had a good feeling about this meeting.

Mulder checked his watch for the umpteenth time since they'd gotten to the Director's office, wondering what was taking Kersh so damn long to get them into his office. He had an increasingly sinking feeling about what the Gunmen would find after they checked out those photos of Skinner. The longer it took them to call him back, the more firmly he believed that the pictures were indeed authentic. A hand shaking his shoulder brought his attention back to the situation at hand.

"Mulder?" he looked up to see Scully standing before him. "The Deputy Director's ready for us." He nodded and got to his feet, holding the door open for Scully and then Doggett before going inside the office and shutting the door behind him.

"Agents, have a seat," Kersh said, motioning to the three chairs that sat in front of his desk. The three sat down, the male agents one on either side of Scully, and focused their attention on Kersh. "I'm sure you're wondering why I called you to my office this morning." Doggett risked a glance at Scully and Mulder, who were both watching Kersh with blank expressions. If he hadn't spoken to them, he wouldn't have any idea how nervous they were. Focusing his attention on the Director again, Doggett readied himself for what might come.

"Contrary to what you may have originally thought regarding this meeting, I didn't call you here this morning to talk about the Assistant Director or his disappearance. We're here this morning to discuss the X-Files division." Mulder bristled. What the hell did Kersh have to do with the X-Files?

"It has been brought to my attention," he continued. "That there has been a recent decline in your health, Agent Mulder." He looked at Mulder, as if for confirmation.

"Yes Sir," Mulder began, evenly, "I have cancer." Beside him, Scully inwardly cringed at how he sounded, how totally devoid of emotion he seemed when he spoke. Kersh nodded, his expression not changing from the scowl he normally wore.

"In light of this recent...development... and A.D. Skinner's absence, myself and the OPR have decided that it would be best if we added another agent to the X-Files investigative unit, so that as Agent Mulder's health declines, the work can continue..." Scully was angered by Kersh's assumption that Mulder's health would continue to decline, and that he cared only about the work and not the agent, and though she was seething, she said nothing.

"Who pissed you off enough to get stuck in the basement with us?" Mulder deadpanned, none of his usual jokiness present. Kersh shot him a look before continuing.

"Because Agent Doggett has been interacting with you two since the search for A.D. Skinner began, and because the position of Task Force Leader will not be a permanent one, the Review Panel and I have decided to appoint Agent Doggett to the X-Files Division," he concluded. All three agents were experiencing varying degrees of shock at Kersh's announcement, with Doggett's being the most severe.

"With all due respect, Sir," Mulder began, "Agent Doggett has no experience with paranormal phenomena. And I--"

Kersh cut him off. "Agent Scully had no experience when she joined the X-Files, and you trained her."

"Agent Scully didn't need to be trained. Her experience as a doctor and her strong scientific background were what she used in the field. They were the qualifications that led the late Section Chief to assign her to me. I don't precisely understand what Agent Doggett's qualifications for the X-Files would be," Mulder shot back, feeling both angry and helpless.

"Agent Doggett worked as a police officer in New York for years, Agent Mulder," Kersh said, hotly. "And he was a Marine before that. Between those two services and acting as an FBI agent since his graduation from Quantico, I believe that he has enough qualifications to be 'stuck in the basement with you' as you put it," he paused for a moment to glare at Mulder, as if daring him to try and argue. Mulder was ready to open his mouth, when Kersh said, "I won't have any arguments. It's done Agent Mulder. Agent Doggett, you can move your things into the office as soon as you'd like. There will be a desk delivered for you this afternoon. You're dismissed."

Doggett rose from his chair immediately, followed by Scully, and finally Mulder, who remained to glare at Kersh for a moment. He would have argued again, but a hand on his arm stopped him. Scully's eyes met his, and their message was clear.

_Don't._

He shook her arm off, and rushed off, brushing past both her and Doggett out of the office.

"Mulder!" she called as he walked down the hall toward the elevators. She called his name again, but louder the second time, and was angered when he didn't even turn around or show any sign of acknowledgement. "Damn it, Mulder," she muttered under her breath, feeling defeated and exhausted. She turned to Doggett, who had also watched Mulder stalk off down the hall. "Agent Doggett..."

"Please, call me John," he interjected, trying not to look too downtrodden.

"John... I have to apologize for Mulder in there. He didn't mean to be rude, I'm sure... He's just in shock..."

"You know what, Agent Scully?" he began, looking over at her. She raised an eyebrow and waited for him to continue. "I haven't been here all that long, and already I've realized that every time Mulder screws up, you feel the need to apologize for his actions. Not that I don't appreciate the effort on your part, because I do, but I have to say that I think it's about time that he grew up and acted like an adult for once instead of a spoiled child." With that he shook his head, and walked away, leaving Scully standing alone in the middle of the corridor, the subject of many curious glances.

Shaking off the lightheaded feeling she got from having eaten too little for this time of the day, she headed over to the nearest vending machine and bought a Hershey's bar. Chocolate was supposed to be good when you're stressed, right? She shook her head, and retrieved the bar, breaking off a hunk and immediately chewing and swallowing it. As she walked toward the exit, she thought more about Mulder and Doggett, who were both acting like idiots at the moment, and Kersh, who couldn't have picked a worse time to be infuriating.

As she placed her lunch order at the local deli, one thought of all the others that swarmed through her mind like bees stuck out above all else, and as ludicrous as it was, it was bothering her. Doggett was getting a desk. It would be his first day in the office, and he would have his own desk. She'd worked down there for seven _years_ and she didn't have a desk, and her name still wasn't even on the goddamn door!

She accepted her sandwich and change from the clerk with a sigh, and headed back to the Hoover Building to try to do some damage control. She frowned. Mulder was certainly not fun when he was pissed off, and it appeared that Doggett was the same way. It looked like it was going to be pretty tense in that office from this point forward.


	8. No Ulterior Motives

Title: What He Knew

Author: Gillian Leigh

Summary: What if Skinner had been abducted instead of Mulder? What would it mean for the X-Files and for Mulder and Scully themselves? Why would he have been abducted in the first place? Post-Requiem.

Disclaimer: They're not mine. If they were, would I be writing this?!

_X-Files Office_

            Half-eaten sandwich in hand, Scully entered the office to see Mulder sitting behind the desk, angrily flicking pencils at the ceiling. Chancing a glance upward, she found that the ceiling tile was dangerously overloaded, and pencils loomed menacingly, threatening to fall with every passing second.

            "Thanks for getting me lunch, Scully," he said, not even looking at her. She bit the inside of her cheek, forcing herself not to yell at him.

            "Well you seemed to be so full of yourself during your little spat with Kersh that I didn't see how you could possibly have any room at all for lunch," she replied, coldly. Two can play at this game, Agent Mulder. He removed his feet from the surface of the desk to look at her. His gaze was cold, but hers was even colder.

            "I didn't see you jumping to my defense up there, you know," he said, rising from his chair to stand before her. He was in her personal space, but she didn't back up. He wasn't going to intimidate her today.

            "Not that I could get a word in edgewise," she hissed, crossing her arms. "And you seemed to be doing a pretty good job of pissing Kersh off all by yourself. You didn't need my help."

            "Damn it, Scully! Kersh is trying to get rid of me, don't you see it? He wants me off the X-Files, because then he has more of a chance of shutting us down!" he yelled, causing her to flinch.

            "No Mulder," she began quietly. "For once in your career, I think that there is no ulterior motive here. Kersh didn't tell you that you couldn't continue working. He said that when you got to the point --if you got to the point-- where you were unable to continue working anymore because of your declining health, that Doggett would take over and assist me. And I didn't see him trying to replace me, so I think that we're safe, that the X-Files are safe."

            "But you're not going to be able to stick around much longer," he said, the anger fading from his voice. "It's going to be too dangerous for you to be in the field pretty soon, and Kersh is going to assign some green agent to replace you too. We'll both be out for an indefinite period of time, and with two unskilled agents working the cases, he can shut us down for good."

            "That is true," she said, reaching out to touch his arm. "But if Doggett gets in the office now, and we start training him tomorrow, he would be more qualified than not to take over the unit while we're gone. And even if I'm not allowed in the field in the months before my maternity leave starts, I can either work out of the office or go to Quantico and continue to consult on cases. I don't think that Kersh is pushing us out the door here Mulder. I truly think that he's looking out for the interests of the division, and those of the Bureau, and our own interests too. His ass is on the line too. He needs to find Skinner, and you and I are two of the best agents he's got to try and do it. He already knows that you might be out of commission soon, and he's going to find out within the next week that he's losing me to maternity leave too, but he wants to hang onto us as long as possible to have the best chance he can of finding Skinner." His expression softened, and he took a step back, out of her personal space.

            "I'm sorry I about how I acted," he said, avoiding her eyes. She took his hand in hers.

            "It's alright, Mulder. I know how you feel. I felt threatened in much the same way when I was sick. But I made it, and you will too," Scully said, squeezing his hand.

            "I'm a mess, Scully, and I'm worried that I won't be here for you and the baby down the road," he said, rubbing his forehead. "The day that you told me about your pregnancy, I made it my goal to be a good father, and provider, and to make sure that you were both taken care of... The thought that I might not live to see my child is killing me inside..." Scully's eyes pooled with tears.

            "Mulder...you can't think like that..." she said. "You'll live to see this baby be born. And you'll live to see him grow up, graduate high school, then college, and get married. You'll live to see him, because after all of the things that we've been through, this is something that we deserve. That _you_ deserve..." Mulder wrapped his arms around her and pulled her tightly to him. "And it's about time something went our way," she added in a whisper, burying her head in his chest.

            Neither saw Skinner's assistant standing in the doorway. Kimberley bit her lip and ducked back out of sight to give the two a moment of peace. After an adequate amount of time, she rapped on the doorframe, and cleared her throat. The two agents were no longer locked in an embrace, but they were still standing close to one another. At the sound of her sharp knock they stepped apart and turned toward the door. Scully's expression registered mild shock at the sight of Kimberley standing in the doorway.

            "Kim? Can we help you?" she asked, crossing her arms.

            Biting her lip, Kim stepped into the room warily, trying hard not to show them both how anxious she was. "Have you heard anything more about the Assistant Director?" she asked, quietly. Mulder studied her peculiarly. She had never approached them before, what was going on now?

            "No, we haven't," Scully replied. "Are you alright? You look a little pale..."

            "Come sit down," Mulder said, offering her a chair. She accepted the chair and sank into it gradually.

            "What's wrong?" Scully asked, growing more concerned as she watched Kimberley more closely.

            "I just-- I don't feel well," Kimberley replied, tucking a strand of red hair behind her ear.

            "It's more than that, isn't it?" Mulder questioned gently. "You're not just worried about Skinner as your boss..." Kimberley was silently damning his Oxford education in psychology and the fact that he could read her like a book. She hesitated for a moment before deciding to tell them. They wouldn't threaten her job, not when they were so worried about keeping their own.

            "You're right," she said, after a moment. "Walter and I have been involved for quite some time now... almost a year. We didn't tell anyone outside of our own families, because it would get the two of us fired. You know the FBI's feelings about fraternization in the workplace..." Mulder and Scully glanced at one another and almost laughed. "But he's been missing for so long now, and I'm scared that he might not come back..." She was fighting her tears. "You have to promise me that you'll find him," she looked somberly at both of them. "And I promise that I'll do anything I can to help."

            Both Scully and Mulder were surprised that they had not picked up on the relationship earlier, but then again, no one had picked up on theirs when it had actually started. Most of the employees of the FBI believed that they knew the story of Mulder and Scully's romantic relationship long before they ever had one.

            "Give me a call whenever you need someone to talk to, Kim... my number's in the book," Scully said as Kim rose to her feet and walked to the door.

            "Thank you..." she took a step and paused, turning back. "You won't tell anyone, will you?" Both agents shook their heads simultaneously.

            "We won't breathe a word," Mulder said, offering the woman a smile. She returned a feeble one before heading off down the hall. "Skinner and Kim?" he said, once she was out of earshot. "Who knew?" Scully smiled, and headed over to the filing cabinet to pull a file she'd been wondering about that concerned Skinner's mysterious illness the previous year. Mulder walked over and sank into his chair.

            The comfortable silence they'd settled into barely lasted a minute before there was a knock at the door, and a man in a jumpsuit holding a clipboard looked at the two of them.

            "I've got a desk here for an Agent Doggett, is he here?" he asked. The name patch sewn on his jumpsuit read "Jeremy".

            "No he's not, but I can sign for it," Scully said, stepping forward.

            He nodded to her, and handed her the clipboard, saying, "Thank you, ma'am. Now where would you like us to put it?"

            Mulder wanted to say, 'You can put it back on the truck and take it the hell out of here', but instead he said, "Just over there." He pointed to his left. The movers nodded, and both agents stepped out of the way as the three movers set to work. Mulder noticed that Scully was wearing a scowl, and asked, "What's wrong?"

            "I've been down here for seven years and I haven't gotten so much as a nameplate, but the minute that Doggett moves in Kersh gives him a damn oak desk," she exclaimed bitterly.

            Mulder smiled and bent down to whisper in her ear. "We'll just have to go upstairs and 'do it' on his desk as payback." The three movers looked at the two agents strangely when they burst into peals of laughter.


	9. Roswell

Title: What He Knew

Author: Gillian Leigh

Summary: What if Skinner had been abducted instead of Mulder? What would it mean for the X-Files and for Mulder and Scully themselves? Why would he have been abducted in the first place? Post-Requiem.

Disclaimer: Ah, this song and dance again... Well, I do believe we all know who they belong to, but for the sake of saving myself from possible lawsuit, any characters you recognize belong to CC, 1013, FOX, and the actors (David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson, Robert Patrick, Annabeth Gish, Mitch Pileggi, Arlene Pileggi, et al.) themselves.

_A month and two weeks later_

            Mulder came through the door of Scully's apartment to find her flitting around, placing last minute touches on the settings on the dinner table. He remained in the doorway for a minute, watching her, until she looked up and saw him standing there.

            "You can come in you know..." she said, placing a salad fork and knife beside the last plate. He stepped away from the door and closed it behind himself, bringing the bottle of champagne with him. After removing his coat and hanging it on the coat rack, he started to walk toward the kitchen. "Stop right where you are, Mulder." He froze. Oh good Lord, was he dripping on her floor again? Two days before, he had come to her apartment after it had snowed, and when he had removed his coat, his shoes were leaving wet marks on her clean floor. She'd nearly killed him, and he didn't want to get yelled at again. But rather than yell at him, Scully walked over and smiled at him. She stood on her tiptoes and lazily wrapped her arms around his neck. He raised his eyebrows in question, and her gaze moved toward the ceiling, so his did as well.

            "Mistletoe," she said.

            "But it's not Christmas yet," he protested playfully.

            "Maybe not, but 'tis the season," she replied only a moment before pressing her lips to his. The kiss was short lived, too short for Mulder's tastes. They parted for only a moment before he leaned back in for another kiss. She pulled away when she felt the kiss leading them toward the bedroom. "Now, now, our company will be arriving in a few minutes, and you wouldn't want to start something we don't have enough time to finish," she chided. He pouted, and she smiled again saying only, "Later, I promise."

            He sighed melodramatically. "Fine, fine, fine. I just hope you weren't planning on sleeping tonight. We have the whole day off tomorrow."

            She smiled. "But we have my doctor's appointment tomorrow. If the baby's turned the right way, we can find out if we're having a boy or girl. And hopefully the doctor can tell me why I'm so huge," she said, running a hand over her belly. He smiled at her and gently rubbed her back. Though he'd never agree with her, she was rather big for four and a half months, but he blamed it on the fact that she was of such a small frame. "Now, if you'll just put that champagne on ice, I'll go get changed."

            She headed into her bedroom, and removed the sweatshirt and sweatpants that she'd had on, standing before her mirror in only her bra and underwear. The sight of her swollen belly made her smile. It made everything more real to her, of course, it had provided several obstacles in the workplace, including telling Kersh about her present condition, and the realization that they had to train yet another agent. Mulder had been relieved to find that she was not a green agent, but rather a strong willed female from the Bureau's New Orleans field office who went by the name of Monica Reyes. With a strong background in suspicious deaths and ritualistic killings, and a willingness to believe, she was just what the X-Files division would need to balance out Doggett's adamant skepticism.

            Monica's addition to the division had been the reason for this get-together that she and Mulder were having at her apartment. They had met during the work day at the office, where she and Mulder found out that Agents Doggett and Reyes were already familiar with one another. Monica had expressed a great interest in Skinner's disappearance, and was ready to learn everything she could about the currently stalled investigation and help out in finding him. So they had agreed to have another conference at Scully's apartment, with dinner to start and x-files and dessert to finish.

            After slipping into a cardigan set and pair of black pants, Scully slid her feet into a pair of slippers and headed back into the living room, where she found Mulder sitting on her couch, with a tissue to his nose. Her heart immediately began hammering in her chest, and she flew to his side, kneeling before him.

            "Are you alright?" she asked quietly, hating the question. He nodded.

            "It's not a bad one," he replied quietly. "And I didn't feel dizzy or anything. I think it's stopped by now." He removed the tissue to find that his nose had indeed stopped bleeding. She sat back on the couch, relieved, and then leaned into him, resting her head on his shoulder. She reached over and took his hand, squeezing his fingers.

            "Mulder, the baby's kicking again. Do you want to feel?" she questioned with a broad smile, looking up at him. He nodded, and she moved his hand onto her belly, where he could feel a fluttering movement. The smile that the feeling brought disappeared in a moment, and Scully saw that his eyes were pooling with tears. "What? What's wrong?"

            "I just keep thinking that I might not ever get to see this baby," he said. "I might die before my only child is born." After a pause, he admitted, "I'm so scared Scully." She bit her lip, and willed herself not to cry in front of him.

            "I'm scared too, Mulder," she confessed, taking his hand in both of hers and squeezing it. She kissed him gently, and their tender moment was interrupted by a knock at the door.

            Both swiping at their tears, they moved toward the door, and Scully pulled it open to find Doggett and Reyes on the other side. Doggett held a stack of files, and Reyes carried a cardboard box (from the corner bakery near where she lived) with a pie inside.

            "Hi, Agent Scully!" Reyes exclaimed, smiling broadly at her.

            "Call me Dana, please," Scully said, welcoming the two into her apartment.

            "Wow," Doggett said, stepping inside. "Dinner smells great." He shook Mulder's hand.

            "John you can put those files on the coffee table, and I'll take that pie Agent Reyes," Scully said, moving to take the box from Reyes.

            "If I'm calling you Dana you can at least call me Monica," Reyes said, handing her the pie. Scully smiled. She already liked this woman.

            "I'll just put this away and then we can get started on dinner," Scully said.

            "Do you need a hand in the kitchen?" Reyes asked, but was clearly not about to take no for an answer as she joined Scully in the kitchen anyway.

            "Thank you," Scully said, as the dark haired agent joined her.

            As they gathered the various dishes, Reyes turned to her, and said, "So, Dana, when is your baby due?" This was a question Scully had been asked umpteen times since she started showing in the previous weeks, but she always delighted in being able to answer it.

            "May nineteenth," she replied. "The doctor should be able to tell us if it's a boy or girl tomorrow." She could've kicked herself, and paused for a moment, hoping Reyes hadn't picked up on the 'us'. If she _did_ notice it, she let well enough alone.

            "Congratulations," she said smilingly as she and Scully put the food on the table.

            Dinner went smoothly, with casual talk, shop talk, and no mention of Mulder's illness, which he was very grateful for. He was sure that Scully had briefed both Doggett and Reyes at the office that day. Mulder and Scully entertained their two counterparts with tales of the more memorable x-files past. As the meal came to a close, and the dessert was brought out, the conversation turned to more current matters. The most recent trip to Bellefleur, Oregon, and Skinner's subsequent disappearance, and of course, the investigation into his disappearance, which had seemingly reached a dead end.

            "And there's been no registering UFO activity, or anything that could possibly be _perceived_ as UFO activity since the incident in Arizona. It's like they're all camped out somewhere, just biding their time, doing their experiments," Mulder said, eating a forkful of pie. They all pondered the data in hand before Reyes spoke up.

            "But what if that's what they _are_ doing, Mulder?" she queried, setting down her fork. "You said that there's been no activity since the sighting in the desert...but maybe that's because the UFO never left. You said that there was a force-field around the ship that hid it in plain sight, protecting it as it rebuilt itself... What if it never left? What if it's still there, in that desert?" Scully's eyebrows went up, and she looked to Mulder, eagerly awaiting his response to these allegations.

            "So you're saying that the UFO is hiding in plain sight in the Arizona desert? It would be registering _something_ even if it was just sitting there..." he replied. Scully swallowed hard.

            "Not if it's been disabled," she said, quietly. "Mulder, I think the aliens are making their ship better than it's ever been. I think they've gone to a place their kind has been before..." She paused for a moment, hoping he would catch on; he didn't. She sighed. "What I'm saying is, there was a twelve hour lapse in intelligence reports from the Gunmen, time enough for the ship to move someplace new, to a place where it could disable itself and continue to gain strength by making use of other alien technology. Technology that's been on earth for fifty-three years..." Mulder's eyes went wide as he finally understood what she was getting at.

            "Roswell," he murmured as Scully solemnly nodded her head.

-x-

**Author's Notes**: Alright, so I know that you're all sitting there thinking, "What?! She's leaving it THERE?!" but I must ask that you be patient with me. This is by far the most complex story I've written (in terms of all of the separate things going on in the storyline) and it's shaping up to be a good one, if I do say so myself.

            For those of you who are dying to know the answers to the questions I use in my summary of the storyline, they will be answered in the upcoming chapters, but there is a chain of events that is being set into motion that leads to their answering and includes events after the answer of the questions as well, especially those about Skinner's involvement. So, I ask again, please stick with me on this one... The answers are coming, and in comparison, it took us nine YEARS to get _some_ answers out of Chris Carter, and I promise this won't take _nearly_ that long. 

            I hope to have Chapter 10 up shortly, because my muse seems to be cooperating for once (knock on wood) and things are going fairly smoothly for this story. I'm also pleading for reviews, because I need to know how I'm doing! Review or send me an email, whatever your little heart desires, but please let me know what you think!

            Thanks, G.L.


	10. Dr Rosenthal, I Presume?

Title: What He Knew

Author: Gillian Leigh

Summary: What if Skinner had been abducted instead of Mulder? What would it mean for the X-Files and for Mulder and Scully themselves? Why would he have been abducted in the first place? Post-Requiem.

-x-

_Obstetrics Department, __Georgetown__University__Hospital___

"Mulder, you're not going to Roswell alone," Scully argued from her position on the examining table in her obstetrician's office. He sighed in frustration. Ever since their little epiphany the previous evening, the two had been arguing over just who would be heading out west to do the investigating.

"Scully, I wouldn't be going alone. Agent Doggett and Agent Reyes would be going with me."

"Well, I want to go too," she replied, wondering where her new doctor was. Her old one had gone on maternity leave. How appropriate, a pregnant obstetrician.

"You can't go chasing aliens all over the southwest in your condition, Dana," he said, crossing his arms. She glared at him. She couldn't stand when he used her given name to chastise her.

"Well you're in no condition to go 'chasing aliens' either, _Fox_," she said, crossing her own arms. "So if you're going, I'm going with you, as your doctor and as your partner."

The doctor, petite and blonde, stepped into the room and sensed the tension immediately. She quickly smiled at the couple.

"I can leave for a few more minutes if you two need some time alone," she said, causing the two to look up at her. The woman, Dana, blushed furiously, having been caught in the middle of an argument.

"No, no, it's fine," was all she could manage to say. The doctor smiled at the two of them.

"Well then, I believe it's time for introductions," she said, extending her hand to Scully first, and then Mulder. "I'm Dr. Rosenthal, but I prefer to be on a first name basis with my patients, so please call me Josephine, Jo, Josie, whatever you're most comfortable with."

"Dana," Scully said, smiling back at this doctor, whom she liked already.

"I'm Fox Mulder, but please, call me Mulder," the second agent, and only male in the room said. Dr. Jo, as her husband jokingly nicknamed her, was short, standing all of five foot two, same height as Scully, with shoulder length blonde hair that hung loosely, framing her face in light layers. Her green eyes sparked, and her smile was mirthful.

"Alright then, I'm going to get started with Dana's internal examination first, so you're welcome to leave the room, Mulder. I'll gladly call you back in when it's time for the ultrasound," Dr. Rosenthal said, and Mulder couldn't get out of his chair fast enough and get out the door.

Ten minutes later, the doctor retrieved him from the hallway.

"You can come back in, Mr. Mulder," she said. "We're ready to do Dana's ultrasound." Mulder followed the doctor inside, and saw Scully lying on the table, with her belly exposed. She smiled brightly at him, and extended her hand to him. He took her hand in his, and sank down into the chair beside the table.

"Are you both ready?" Dr. Rosenthal asked, holding the conductive gel in her hand. Both Mulder and Scully nodded. "Okay. I'm going to apply the gel to your stomach now, Dana, and it might be a little chilly." She spread the conductive gel on the surface, and picked up the wand, moving it over Scully's belly until an image, albeit a blurry one, appeared on the computer monitor. She moved it around until she had a good picture, and then turned the volume so Scully and Mulder could hear the heartbeat. Rather than reassure Scully, the sound made her panic.

"It's too fast," she said, looking frantically to Dr. Rosenthal.

"Normally I would agree with you, Dana, and be worried, but what we're hearing isn't one very fast heartbeat..." the doctor paused, and smiled at the two of them. "Just two normal ones..." Both of them simply stared at her, neither quite getting what she was saying. "You're having twins." Scully's eyes widened, and she watched as the doctor stilled the picture on the computer monitor, and showed them their children. After she showed them the heads, feet and hands of both babies, she said, "They're positioned perfectly. Would you like to know the sexes?"

"We would," Scully said, after a moment. "We thought it would be more practical that way."

Dr. Rosenthal smiled at them both and said, "Well, I can tell you with complete certainty that you're having a boy and a girl. Congratulations."

-

"What do you think about the name 'Catalina'?" Scully asked, reading from the baby names book they'd picked up on their way home from the obstetrician. Mulder momentarily stopped packing his suitcase and looked over at her.

"It sounds too snooty," he replied, without a moment's hesitation. She rolled her eyes.

"Well then, what about 'Lily'?" she questioned. He shrugged.

"I think it's weird to name your kid a nickname..."

"'Lily' isn't a nickname, Mulder; it's a type of flower!" Scully exclaimed, turning pages in the book.

"I'm just not fond of it, Scully..." She sighed.

"What about Nora?" she queried, waiting a moment for a protestation from Mulder. None came.

"I like it," he said. "Nora."

"Okay," she replied. "What name do you like for a boy?" Mulder sighed.

"I don't know, Scully... I thought this was the sort of thing women were good at..."

"Well, Mulder, I thought that you might want some input on what your children are named!" Scully said, feeling the color rising in her cheeks.

"I don't know," he said calmly, "I've always liked the name 'Adam'." Scully smiled.

"'Adam'. I like it," she said, glancing down at her belly. "Nora and Adam Mulder, Mommy and Daddy are eagerly awaiting your arrival." And that settled it, the twins were named. Middle names were something they would debate later. With naming their babies off of her mind, Scully's attention turned back to the issue at hand.

"Mulder, I wish you wouldn't go to Arizona," Scully said. "It's only a week until Christmas, and I'm worried about your health."

"For the last time, Scully, one of us _has_ to go, and since your doctor classified you as a high-risk pregnancy because of the twins, _you_ certainly can't go. I'm still allowed to travel, and I'm _fine_, so I'm going."

"I know one of us needs to go, but I still wish that you wouldn't..." Scully said, rising from her perch on the bed and walking over to him. He rested his hands on her hips and gently kissed her forehead.

"I know you're worried, but I'll be checking in with you constantly, and Agents Doggett and Reyes will be with me every step of the way. They'll watch out for me, and I'll be careful... I promise."

The honk of a horn told them both that the cab Mulder had called for was waiting outside.

"I've gotta go," he said, kissing her again, and picking up his suitcase. She nodded, and followed him to the door of his apartment. Though they often spent the night at one place or another, they hadn't officially moved in together. "Lock it up on your way out?"

"Okay," she said. "Call me when you know anything about Skinner." He smiled.

"Of course."

As he headed down the hallway, she called, "Love you!" He smiled at her over his shoulder.

"Love you too."

When the elevator doors had closed and Mulder disappeared from view, Scully swallowed hard, trying to get rid of the uneasy feeling in the pit of her stomach. She realized, as the twins moved about incessantly inside her womb, that maybe they were uneasy too, and it only worried her more.

-x-

Author's Notes: Alright, even though I'm not getting much feedback on this story, at least I know that _I _like it, so I'm going to keep right on posting. But this chapter's going to be all you get for a while because I'm going to Colorado for ten days. I'm sorry for the long wait with the chapters in this story, and I appreciate the reviews from those of you who have bothered to stick with me this long. So I've left you with a bit of a cliffhanger, but hey, the ten days will give you some time to ponder, at the very least, and develop your own ideas about what goes on from here.

And I'm babbling, yet again. So I'll go now, and leave you all with this.


	11. Circling the Drain

Title: What He Knew

Author: Gillian Leigh

**For summary and disclaimers see earlier chapters.**

_Roswell__New Mexico__  
-Desert-_

They were quite an odd-looking group. In a more populated area, they would have seemed suspicious, six adults all traveling together in the middle of the night, but the desert was far from being what one would call a 'populated area'. At first they had attempted to be inconspicuous, but they soon realized that they were alone and in no danger of attracting attention, unwanted or otherwise. The Gunmen's data led them to a remote part of the desert, which, according to the aforementioned data, was a hotbed of UFO activity and unexplained phenomena. They hoped it would lead them to the space craft that took the Assistant Director.

As they stood outside their rented Ford Excursion, a bright light appeared two hundred yards away on the horizon.

"What the hell is that?" Doggett queried. Reyes also stared in wonderment, while Byers went slack-jawed. Langly and Frohike shared a look.

"It's what we're looking for," Frohike proclaimed.

"Everybody in the car," Mulder instructed, hopping into the driver's seat. As the engine roared to life he tried to ignore the tiredness that he felt, attributing it to jetlag. "Hold on tight." The tires squealed as Mulder whipped the SUV off the road and out over the bumpy desert terrain. The force sent Reyes flying over onto Doggett, who didn't seem to mind too much having a pretty woman literally fall into his lap. Reyes blushed and immediately straightened up.

"Sorry," she said quietly. He smiled at her.

"It's alright." Mulder didn't miss the look the two shared.

As they grew close to the light the craft rose upward in the sky. While five others watched it, Mulder depressed the clutch and rapidly up-shifted. The SUV nearly flew across the desert, bouncing over the rough terrain. They had nearly reached the when it rose higher into the night sky and then jetted off.

They stopped the SUV and all six got out.

"Shit!" Frohike exclaimed, "It's gone." Mulder slammed his door. Though no one had known what to expect of the craft, they _had_ hoped that it would still be disabled and that they would be able to find a way to gather information about it. A feeling of despair settled over the group, and they stood in silence.

It was Byers who spoke first, noticing something reflected in the truck's headlights. "What's that?" he asked, pointing some twenty yards ahead of the vehicle. Reyes stopped in the middle of lighting her cigarette and squinted, trying to discern what it was that she too saw.

"Oh my God," she said. "It looks like a body." The horrified group ran across the barren landscape, and found that there were five people thrown together on the ground. They were barely clinging to life and all of them were naked. Among them were those who disappeared in Oregon nearly four months before. Theresa and Ray Hoese; Billy Miles, Gary, and A.D. Skinner, who looked worst of all.

-Two Hours Later-  
_Roswell__General__Hospital___

Doggett paced the floor, hands in his pockets. To his left, Reyes slept in a chair, the Gunmen had gone off to take yet another walk around the hospital grounds and Mulder, as far as he knew, had gone off to get in touch with Scully and Skinner's assistant Kim. The situation was not good. Four of the five abductees were dead. Skinner was the only one alive, and as it was, he was basically circling the drain. All five showed signs of severe abuse and neglect, and had been clearly deprived of nourishment for indeterminable periods of time. The surgical scars on his face, chest wrists and ankles baffled all of the doctors, who told Mulder, in no uncertain terms, that there were no medical instruments currently in use that could have created the wounds that Skinner and the deceased abductees displayed.

Doggett glanced at his watch again. It was one in the morning New Mexico times, but his body was telling him that it was hours later. They weren't allowed to see Skinner yet because his condition was so mysterious, and he was currently in the Intensive Care Unit, in a hermetically sealed environment. It seemed to Doggett that the doctors didn't know if the room was to protect Skinner from what germs they might bring in, or to protect them from what Skinner could have contracted while he was missing. His legs were complaining, and he sank into the chair beside Reyes. All that was left to do now, was wait.

-x-

Mulder was surprised when Scully answered the phone on the first ring.

"Scully," she said.

"You're awake," he said.

"You sound surprised," she replied. Standing in the parking lot, Mulder took a moment to admire the night sky. It was beautiful country, that's for certain.

"It's got to be nearly four in the morning at home... you need your rest," he said, sinking down on to a bench near the butterfly garden. Back home in Georgetown, Scully rolled her eyes.

"I'm fine, _Fox._ The babies are getting their rest, but I've been a little too anxious for news to get mine. What's going on out there?" she questioned. She shifted the quilt she was working on in her lap and checked the stitching. This was something she was grateful her mother had taught her how to do, and it had been good for calming her worries this evening by keeping her mind occupied. When Mulder didn't respond, Scully pushed him again for an answer. "Mulder? Have you heard anything?"

"It's not good, Scully," he said quietly. Her heart dropped, and she found it momentarily hard to swallow.

"How bad?"

"They're all dead..." Scully nearly dropped the phone, and Mulder took a breath and finished the sentence. "...except Skinner, and it doesn't look like he even has a snowball's chance..." Mulder closed his eyes.

She searched for the right words, but all she could say was, "Oh."

"I asked if there was any way that we could get him back to D.C., but the doctors told me that they'll only be able to transport him if his condition stabilizes and improves a little. But they told me not to hold my breath on that one," he said. "Kersh is flying out in the morning, along with a few other FBI higher-ups."

"I'm coming too," she said, setting her quilting project aside.

"No you're not, Scully. Dr. Rosenthal said you're not allowed to fly," he countered, pacing in a small circle.

"She said I'm not_ supposed_ to fly, never that I'm not _allowed_ to fly. I'm sure if I explained the situation I could get special medical clearance," she argued, struggling to get up off the couch.

"No, Scully. You're not coming. I don't want to you risk anything. I'll stay a few more days and then come home. There's nothing I can do here anyway, and maybe by that point Skinner will have improved enough to be flown home," he said, not even bothering to get his hopes up. On the other end Scully gave in. There was no point in arguing with Mulder, especially if he promised to come home.

"You'll keep me in the loop, right?" she questioned, waddling over to the refrigerator.

"Of course," he responded, meaning it. She smiled.

"Good. I'll let you go, and you should try to get some sleep, Mulder. Even though you've been taking your iron supplements, you still seem pretty worn out..." she paused, but before he could even protest, she spoke again. "I know that there's a lot going on out there, but you need to keep your health in mind. Skinner isn't the only one whose life is at stake here." Mulder sighed--he couldn't fault her logic.

"Alright. I'll get some rest, but you should too. You've got three times as many people to be concerned with as I do," he said, thinking about their unborn children.

"I will. Goodnight, Mulder."

"Goodnight, Scully. I love you."

"I love you too, bye sweetheart."

"Bye." The line went dead and Scully sighed again, glancing longingly at the phone before hanging it up. She decided then that it would be best to try and get some sleep before the babies woke in the morning and started pummeling her various internal organs.

It wasn't until three hours later that her phone rang again.

"Scully," she said sleepily. As the person on the other end spoke, her eyes grew wide in shock, and her hands shook. She choked back tears, and offered whispered responses.

"I'll be there as soon as I can." It was about Mulder, and it wasn't good.

Author's Notes: A bit of a cliffhanger for ya there kids. I don't know how many more chapters there will be in this story, but I still have to resolve the issues of why Skinner was abducted, Mulder's cancer, and the birth of the twins. I have the whole thing mapped out; I just have to get it written down. I'm working on chapter 12 before I have to go back to school, because once I go back it's going to get pretty hectic. Thanks for reading!


	12. Deja Vu

Title: What He Knew

Author: Gillian Leigh

Disclaimer: Please see an earlier chapter.

Author's Notes are at the end of the chapter.

--x--

As Margaret Scully navigated their rental car to Roswell General with her daughter dozing lightly in the passenger seat, the remnants of their phone conversation from earlier in the morning were drifting through her mind. _Hypovolemic__ shock__. Metastasized. Less than a month to live._

At 7:15 that morning she had received a frantic call from her hysterical daughter, telling her all of these things, and that they were about Fox. She had immediately packed a bag and driven over to see her daughter, who was already on the phone with her obstetrician getting special permission to fly to Oregon.

Their plane had flown out of Dulles at 10:00 a.m. EST. Shortly after touchdown they had secured their rental car and gotten directions to the airport.

Now, as they drove, Maggie looked over at her daughter, unable to imagine what this was doing to her. Even in her sleep, her arms were protectively cradling her belly and the children inside. Twins. Maggie couldn't believe it. Her youngest daughter--her only daughter-- who was told she would never get pregnant was now carrying fraternal twins, just like she and her brother had been.

Pulling the car into an available space, Maggie shifted it into park and shut off the engine. She hated to wake Dana, because she knew that she had hardly slept at all the night before, but she would want to see Fox right away. She gently shook Scully's shoulder.

"Sweetheart, wake up. We're here," she said, and after a moment Scully stirred. She sighed.

"I thought for a moment that it was all just a horrible dream," she whispered, feeling tears pooling in her eyes again. Not knowing what to say, Maggie reached over and simply squeezed her hand. After a moment of tense silence, Scully quietly spoke up. "Well, I guess we should go inside."

-x-

"I'll wait here," Maggie said, indicating a chair in the hallway outside Mulder's room. Scully nodded, and hesitated a moment before going into the room. Mulder, who was teetering on the edge of sleep, heard a sharp intake of breath, and opened his eyes. His eyelids felt heavy as he rolled his head to the right, and looked at Scully. Immediately he felt himself smiling at her.

"Hey," he said hoarsely. The smile she returned was wobbly, and he could tell that she was on the verge of tears. For once, he couldn't blame her hormones... his diagnosis was a death sentence, and it looked like he would be serving it sooner than he had thought.

"Hi," she replied quietly, one arm draped protectively over her belly. She walked over and pulled a chair up next to his bed, easing her body down into it. Mulder wanted to talk more, but he was fighting sleep, and not faring well. Scully reached up and gently stroked his cheek.

"You need to sleep, Mulder. We'll talk later," she said, rising up enough so that she could kiss his forehead. Even though his eyes slipped closed, Mulder smiled.

"Lips," he ordered sleepily, pointing to his own with his index finger. Scully smiled sadly, and kissed him once on the lips. As ill as his body was, his spirit wasn't broken yet.

It didn't take long for Mulder to give in to sleep. He was much more at ease knowing that Scully was nearby, and he slept more soundly and quickly. Scully remained by his bedside until he fell asleep, and waited a half and hour afterward before the nurse came in to check his vital signs and the dosage of pain killers he was getting.

"I can come back if you want, Ms. Scully," the nurse said, pausing in the doorway. Scully shook her head, and rose carefully out of the chair.

"No, that's alright. I need to take a walk and loosen my limbs up anyway. Can you tell me where I can find his doctor?" she asked in a hushed voice, making her way toward the door.

"Dr. Baker should be either in the cafeteria or the doctor's lounge for lunch. One of the other nurses or doctors could help you find him," the nurse replied. Her nametag proclaimed in capital letters that she was "K. Snow, RN".

"Thank you," Scully replied, slipping out of the room. Her mother was no longer seated in the hall, but it was more than likely that she had gone to take a walk and stretch her legs. They'd had a cramped flight and she drove quite a bit as well. Scully turned the corner in the corridor, looking for someone who could help her find the doctor. She saw a nurse, but there was also a sign for vending machines in the corridor, and at the moment, she needed something to up her blood sugar or she was going to fall asleep standing up. Rummaging in her purse, she managed to find some quarters and found exactly what she wanted in the machine--animal crackers. Frosted ones. Slipping the quarters into the slot, she pushed in "E12" and waited for the crackers to fall.

"So I see that congratulations are in order." Startled, Scully dropped the bag that she'd held in her hand, and whipped around. The sound of that voice had made her blood run cold. CGB Spender stood less than two feet from her, and as she turned around he eyed her belly, smiling. Instinctively her arms moved to cover it protectively, keeping her babies safe.

"What do you want?" she hissed, eying him warily. She noticed that he looked pale, thin...ill.

"I've always hoped I would be made a grandfather. Where's Fox? I wanted to congratulate him as well," he said, dodging her question. His smugness made her want to smack him.

"You know damn well where he is. You did this to him, you bastard," she replied through clenched teeth. "Why Mulder? He's already been through so much... why do this to him?!"

"His illness is not my fault, Dana." She bristled at his use of her first name. "In fact," he continued, "you could say that his condition is the fault of the Assistant Director." Scully's eyebrows went up.

"Oh really?" she shot back, crossing her arms over her chest. "How is that?"

"If he hadn't gotten in the way, things would be perfect now. But he meddled in things beyond his comprehension, and he has compromised many people. He has endangered several lives other than his own."

"What are you talking about? He was abducted! He had no choice in that," she said, trying to keep her voice level. Spender looked at her, leering smugly.

"That's where you're wrong, Agent Scully."

With that he turned and walked away, leaving a frustrated and confused Scully in his wake. She watched his retreating back for a minute until he opened the door to the stairwell and disappeared out of sight. Shaken, Scully turned and picked up the package of animal crackers, her mind overflowing with new and unanswered questions.

As she walked back down the corridor toward Mulder's room, she remembered the conversation she and Mulder had had with Agent Doggett.

The incriminating photos had said it all.

_He's been in on it since the beginning._ She then thought of what the Smoking Man had just said to her, and began to see the connection... or at least some kind of connection.

_In fact, you could say that his condition is the fault of the Assistant Director._

_ He meddled in things beyond his comprehension._ She gathered that Skinner was somehow responsible for his own abduction, but she had not and still did not understand _why_ he was taken.

Unless... No. Scully, deep in thought, came to a stop outside Mulder's door and looked in on him. Skinner could not have knowingly been involved in his abduction unless the intended abductee was someone else entirely... Mulder.

Author's Notes: Well, I guess you all knew that already... or you at least suspected. I didn't want to post this chapter without Chapter 13 as its companion, but with school, work and extra-curriculars, Chapter 13 doesn't look like it'll be posted any time too soon, so I thought I would give you this one at least. Once again, (I seem to say this every time) I'm sorry it's taking so long between posts. Usually I'm more prompt with posts than this, but I guess I could blame my newfound laziness on the fact that my senior year is absolutely crazy.

And I'm babbling again, so I'll leave you now. Thanks for reading, and let me know how I'm doing!


	13. The Christmas Curse

Title: What He Knew

Author: Gillian Leigh

Disclaimer: Don't own 'em... never did.

-x-

Placing the last red satin ornament on the tree, Margaret Scully took a step back to admire her work. It wasn't what she wanted, but it would do. The small, artificial tree looked out of place in the sterile hospital room. Sighing, she turned around and glanced at the sight of Mulder's sleeping form in his hospital bed.

She hadn't wanted to spend another Christmas in a hospital, not this hospital, at least. She shivered, and pulled her sweater tightly around her body. Christmas Eve always brought out certain ghosts, and though she'd dealt with them in the past, she'd much rather avoid them tonight. Maggie remained, standing in the middle of Mulder's hospital room, the ghosts of Christmas tragedies all around her. Her reverie was broken when the door to the room clicked open, and her exhausted looking daughter waddled into the room. The sight of her brought a small smile to Maggie's face, but not fast enough for her daughter to miss the sad expression she had been wearing.

"Are you okay, Mom?" she questioned quietly, taking her mother's hand in hers.

"I'm alright, sweetheart," she replied with a confident smile. Scully didn't miss the unshed tears in her eyes. "We don't have the best track record for Christmases, do we?" Scully shook her head. "No, I'm afraid we've been spending a few too many of them in the hospital recently." She appeared lost in thought for a moment, and then chuckled. Her mother looked at her peculiarly. "I was just remembering that Christmas when Charlie got the BB gun that Bill wanted, and they startled wrestling in the middle of the living room, and then Charlie broke Bill's arm. We spent that whole day in the emergency room..." Maggie brightened a bit at the memory.

"Those two didn't speak for a week they were so mad at each other. And if memory serves, Bill ended up breaking the gun and neither of them ever got to use it!" Scully nodded, smiling at the memory of that Christmas.

"Scully?" Mulder mumbled sleepily and started stirring. Maggie looked at her daughter and smiled.

"Go to him, sweetheart. I was just on my way out. I'll be back to visit you in the morning," she said, kissing Scully on the cheek.

"Scully?" Mulder mumbled again, turning his head toward the two women. "Oh hi, Mrs. Scully."

"Maggie, Fox," she said, walking over to gently kiss him on the forehead. "And you need to get your rest. I was just on my way out." He smiled at her, sitting up and resting on his elbows.

"Okay," he replied. "Are you coming by tomorrow?" She nodded.

"Yes, I'll be by first thing in the morning."

"Okay," he said, squeezing her hand. "We'll be here." She gave Scully a hug, and headed out the door. They both watched Maggie leave, and then Mulder turned his attention to Scully.

"Hey sweetie. How are you feeling?" Scully asked, taking his hand in hers.

"I miss you," he said. She raised her eyebrows and looked at him peculiarly.

"Mulder, I'm right here, and have been for the past four days..." she replied, gently stroking his forehead.

"No, it's not the same, Scully. I miss our normal life," he replied, kissing her knuckles. That earned an eyebrow raise.

"When were our lives ever _normal_, Mulder?" she questioned, unable to keep from smiling. She was trying to lighten the mood, and he knew it, and he was willing to let it go for now. He could tell by the change in her expression that she knew what he'd meant to begin with. Feeling the twinge of her sciatic nerve in her back, Scully rubbed the spot where the pain began, and sank down gracelessly into the chair beside Mulder's bed.

"How's Skinner?" he asked, gently massaging each of her fingers.

"He's not awake yet, but the doctors say he should be soon. Kim's upstairs with him," she replied. Mulder nodded. "Has the doctor told you anything?"

"Nothing other than the fact that none of the conventional treatments are working. He said he wants to look into more radical stuff, more aggressive stuff. He said it was basically the only thing we could do if we wanted to have even a chance of killing this cancer," he replied.

Scully closed her eyes, remembering having the same conversation with Dr. Zuckermann years before. She paused for a moment, thinking of how to bring up the subject of another possible treatment... one that Mulder risked his life for during her illness.

"There's something I want to talk to you about," she said, leaning back slightly in her chair. " It's something that could help you get better," she continued quietly. He nodded, urging her to go on. "During my illness, when the doctor told me that I was running out of options, amidst all other radical treatments, and visits from Father McCue, you gave Dr. Zuckermann what seemed like the unlikeliest of cancer treatments... the chip. Looking back on it now, that long-shot saved me. The chip cured me of my cancer, and if my assumptions are correct, repaired my ovaries enough so that they began producing ova again, and restored my fertility. I want a chance to return the favor, Mulder. I want to help you get well," she paused for effect. "Tell me where to get a chip like mine."

His reaction was the opposite of what she had expected. He shook his head vehemently, his mouth set in a firm line. "No, Scully."

She stared at him. "What?! Mulder, why not?! For Christ's sake, this could save your life!" She was an inch from shouting as she got up out of her chair, with her hands balled up in fists and resting on her hips.

"It's too dangerous. I did things I would've rather gone without doing to get that chip. I won't have you risking your life to go looking for this."

"So you're going to die rather than let me help you," she said, feeling tears in the corners of her eyes.

"I won't have you risking your life," he replied quietly, unable to meet her eyes.

"So you're going to take the easy way out of this. You're not going to fight this at all?"

This time his eyes met hers, and he was angry. "You think that dying is the easy way out, Dana?! You honestly believe that it's easy for me to sit here in this hospital, knowing that I'm going to die before my children are born? Do you think I want to leave all of that behind?" Her tears were falling freely.

"If that's what you expect me to believe, Mulder, then prove it. Fight with all you have against this disease. Don't sit here and let it eat away at you. Let me help you!" she said, her voice shaky from crying.

"Scully, I can't let you..." He didn't even finish his sentence before she was out of the room. The door closed heavily behind her as he watched. For the first time in a long time, his head fell into his hands, and he cried out of despair.

-x-

"Just a minute!" Maggie Scully called as she walked toward the door. She wondered who in the world would be at her door at nearly midnight. Yawning, she rose up on her tip-toes to glance out the peep hole. Seeing who was on the other side, she immediately grew worried and hurriedly yanked the door open. "Dana what is it?" she questioned. Without warning, her teary daughter practically fell into her arms.

"Oh Mom..." she managed, burying her face in her mother's shoulder and wrapping her arms around her. Startled and now very awake, Maggie managed to close the door without breaking her daughter's precarious and awkward embrace.

"Dana, what is it? What's happened?"

"We had a fight," Scully said in a voice barely above a whisper.

"You and Fox?" she queried, slightly surprised. They hardly fought at all, especially recently. Her daughter nodded. When she was distraught, she became so inarticulate. "What was the fight about?"

"We were arguing about his course of treatment... All conventional treatment has been giving him no results, and neither has anything radical that they were willing to try... so I proposed getting him a cure like the one he brought to me when I had cancer..."

"The microchip," Maggie said quietly, guiding her now-standing daughter into the living room and gesturing toward the sofa. Awkwardly, Scully lowered herself onto the sofa, sitting back to look at her mother. She nodded briefly before continuing.

"Yes, a microchip. It seems to be the only cure that might work. His cancer is identical to mine, in type and origin. But he won't let me. He wouldn't tell me how he got my chip."

"Why not?" Maggie questioned, bewildered as to why Mulder wouldn't let her daughter help him get well.

"He says it's too dangerous. He doesn't want me risking myself or the twins just to save him." She was crying hard again, and covered her face in her hands. "He's just going to let himself die. He's not going to fight." Maggie felt her heart plummet from her chest.

"Dana, he's tired. You know how tired you were during all of your treatments... I'm sure he doesn't mean it like that..."

"I was so terrible to him... I never gave him a chance to explain... I just walked out..." Scully said, rubbing her belly in circles to calm either Adam or Nora, whichever baby was kicking her.

"You'll have these silly arguments, Dana. I'm sure you'll both be over it all in the morning..." Maggie said, reaching out to pat her hand.

"No...we won't," she said quietly. Before Maggie could question what Scully meant, she continued, "We won't be able to talk about it in the morning. Apparently, after I left, Mulder got so worked up that he started bleeding again... and the trauma put him into a coma. They don't know if he'll come out of it."

-x-

Author's Notes: Another cliffhanger. (Ducks flying objects.) School is crazy, and that is my excuse yet again for the delay between chapters. I promise that there are more coming, and as long as you keep reading I'll keep writing it. Make sure to hit the little review button and let me know how I did! **Thanks!**


	14. Believe It or Not

Title: What He Knew

Author: Gillian Leigh

Disclaimer: See an earlier chapter.

Author's Notes: I find myself begging for your forgiveness once again. My senior year is difficult, busy, and it hasn't been helping me with the creative process. This chapter, and what will be chapter fifteen were originally going to be posted together, but I got to the midpoint and realized that I had neither the time nor the creativity to make this any longer. But I felt that I owed it to you all to post SOMETHING. I don't know how long it will be until the next chapter, so I hope that you enjoy this one!

-------x-------

Kimberley Fitzgerald believed in Christmas miracles. Sitting before her, in perfect health, was someone she hadn't expected to see alive again. Walter Skinner, although pale and a little underweight was sitting up in his hospital bed, having a conversation with her. For a while, the doctors had all but given up hope that he would ever recover. But at Agent Reyes and Agent Scully's insistence, she'd allowed a man, someone named Jeremiah Smith, to come in and perform a laying on of hands. That had startled her a bit a first, that Agent Scully, the cold, scientific skeptic would actually recommend such action, but now she'd begun to wonder if it had had it's merits after all. How could she question any course of treatment at all, seeing him now?

When he had awoken, she'd immediately called Scully, knowing she and Mulder would want to be updated. At 5:30 on Christmas morning, she found her reason to believe. And at 5:35, she'd understood why Agent Scully stopped. Mulder was comatose, and his condition was deteriorating rapidly. Now, at just after eight, Scully was on her way up from visiting Mulder, insistent on talking to the Assistant Director.

Kim rose out of her chair at the light knock, and opened the door for the agent. It took a moment for Skinner to see her, with Kim obstructing his view as she gave her a hug, but he was shocked when he finally saw her. She was _pregnant_.

"The new chip worked," he muttered to himself. She'd gotten her fertility back. At least some good had come from it.

"Sir," she said, forcing a smile. "It's good to see you again." He found himself staring at her midsection even as he greeted her and asked her to sit down. "I'm assuming from your reaction that Kim didn't tell you about my current... condition," she said, sinking into the chair beside his bed. Skinner cleared his throat.

"No, she said there were some things you wanted to tell me about yourself... apparently this is one of them," he replied, a smile tugging on the corners of his lips. "Is it a boy or girl?"

"One of each," she replied, smilingly. His eyebrows went up a little. "Twins," she confirmed.

"Congratulations," he replied.

"Thank you," she said quietly. Suddenly, what she had come here expressly to talk to him about seemed more difficult than ever.

"What is it you needed to talk to me about, Agent?" Skinner queried, inwardly cringing. He should've called her 'Dana' or 'Scully', this wasn't the office... Oh well, he thought, old habits die hard.

"Sir, I don't know how much Kim has told you about Mulder's current condition, or what we believe caused it, but that's what I need to speak to you about."

"Kim's told me that Mulder has brain cancer like yours, and that he's in the final stages, but she's said nothing about what might have caused it..." he said. Scully's troubled expression told him there was more involved here than even Kim knew.

"Mulder's cancer is a result of the removal of a microchip from the base of his skull. Everything he's experiencing is just like what I went through, but it's all happening much faster. I need to find a chip," she said. "There's nothing else that will cure his illness."

"Oh, I'm sorry," Skinner said, trying to remain calm, even though his mind was spinning. What had They done?

"Sir," Scully said, lowering her voice. "Before Mulder became too ill, we discovered that you were involved with the men in the Syndicate. You don't need to play dumb." She tried to put a damper on her anger, but she felt it boiling up in her chest.

Skinner's heart was hammering. She knew?

"Agent Scully, I don't know what you're talking about...." he said, looking her in the eye. She rose up out of her chair, and he flinched as her hand came up, fearing being hit. She instead balled it into a fist and hit the rail of his bed as her face reddened and tears welled up in her eyes.

"He's going to die!" she yelled. "Every minute you sit here and lie to me is one less minute I have to find out how to save him!" She leaned forward until her face was unbelievably close to his. "Tell me the truth. You owe it to me. You owe it to _Mulder_."

He closed his eyes. He had been able to keep his alliances a secret from most everyone, especially his agents, but now that Mulder and Scully had found him out, he couldn't lie to her. He _did_ owe it to them.

"I've been involved with the Project since the spring of 1974. Bill Mulder and CGB Spender recruited me through their positions at the Defense Department when I first became an Agent. They promised me power, and many years of success in the FBI. I was young, but I wasn't about to refuse. I was foolish as well. I didn't realize then what the price would be for this power. When the abductions occurred in November of that year, I didn't know anything more about the people being taken than their names. I didn't know anything about Mulder and his sister before they were abducted..."

Scully was startled. Had she heard him correctly? Both Samantha _and_ Mulder were abducted? Her look of surprise prompted him to answer the question she hadn't had a chance to voice.

"Every member of the Project who had spouses and children was forced to make a decision of which to give up for experimentation. You already know all of this I'm sure. But at any rate, the reason for choosing a member of his family to give to the Project was not to send them away for horrible testing and to torture them, it was, initially, to protect them from the viral apocalypse, which we knew of even back then.

"Or rather, that was what we were led to believe. Bill and Teena Mulder wanted both of their children to be protected, so they set up the entire event. I spoke to Bill once or twice before the abductions, and he explained to me what they had explained to him, that the children would be given something to knock them out, and they would be taken to the facility where they would be tested, the appropriate samples would be gathered, and then the chips would be surgically inserted into their necks. They were also given the false memories that Mulder and other 'abductees' have experienced, to assure that no one else found out about the testing and research."

"But," Scully interjected, needing to make sure she understood. "Why wasn't Samantha ever returned?"

"Once the actual abductions occurred, a change was made. Long-term testing was needed, and the members were forced to give up a family member. Bill Mulder chose Samantha. We're not quite sure why, but most of the speculation I've heard is that Fox was his favorite, and he sacrificed his daughter to the cause." Scully felt sick to her stomach. To know that this man was willing to give up one of his own children.

"But if the purpose of Mulder's chip was to protect him from the viral apocalypse, why was it removed?" Scully asked, studying Skinner intently.

"That I don't know for sure. The men of the Project began distrusting me back when Mulder experienced the strange brain activity while you were in Africa. They could sense that I was reaching the breaking point, and that I felt a certain loyalty to you and Agent Mulder. I was effectively out of the loop. But I think that the idea behind removing Mulder's chip was to correct the problems he was experiencing with his brain," Skinner said, his brows knitting together in concentration.

"But its removal led to his cancer, just like the removal of my chip did. Why would they have wanted to take the chip out, unless they wanted him dead?" Scully said, rising out of her chair.

"No, if they'd wanted him dead, they would've done it some other way. They don't waste time, Scully. You know that," he said, watching her as she walked around the room. She still walked with some grace, but her posture had changed due to the added weight and shift in her center of gravity. She sighed and braced her back with both of her hands. She stopped her pacing, and turned to look at him.

"But why you?" she queried, studying him critically. "Why were you taken?" Skinner's eyes met hers.

"I wasn't taken, Scully. I volunteered myself."

-------x-------


	15. I Want to Believe

Title: What He Knew

Author: Gillian Leigh

Disclaimer: I'm not a production company, a former surfer turned TV show writer/producer, or an actor at all. (i.e. They're not mine.)

-x-

When Scully left the hospital a half an hour later, her head was still spinning. The Assistant Director had told her so many things that she wouldn't have dared believe years ago, but now, well now, she had seen it all. After hearing everything he had to tell her, Scully had immediately requested armed guards to be placed at his door at all times. Guards she appointed herself, because she didn't know who else she could trust.

The things Skinner had told her blew her mind. He had detailed for her his exact involvement in the Syndicate. He had worked closely with the men who were responsible for her abduction, known all about Emily... everything. He had told her that he couldn't claim to be innocent, or oblivious, because he _was_ involved in these things. At first, he'd said, it was easy enough to follow orders, because he didn't know Mulder and Scully well, and he could just think of them as regular test subjects.

"When you told me about your cancer, that was when it _really_ started to bother me. Everything that happened with your daughter, made me sick. By the time they started mentioning Mulder's planned abduction after the major surgery performed on both Mulder and CGB Spender, I'd had enough. For Christ's sake, the two of you have been through enough already! I couldn't stand the thought of you getting hurt anymore. I knew that Mulder was going to be abducted in Oregon, and I knew that I would stop it by going in his place, but I needed to be there with him when I knew that they were coming for him.

When we set up our laser pointers in the forest that night, and I saw where the light diffused, I sent him back to the car to get my cell phone, and then I walked up and through the force field. By the time he came back, I was gone, and by the time the Syndicate learned what had happened, it was too late."

Though their discussion had indeed answered many of her questions, she still couldn't understand why Mulder's chip would've been removed before his abduction, or for what purpose they would be taking him again in the first place. Feeling the twins squirming impatiently, restlessly in her belly, Scully sighed, wondering if they were worried about their father too.

She was so wrapped up in her own reverie as she walked to Mulder's room, that she didn't even notice the other person in the room with them until he spoke.

"He won't live another two weeks like this. You know that." Standing in the far corner of the room, was CGB Spender. Scully's flesh immediately broke out into goose flesh.

"What are you doing here? Who let you in?" She watched in disgust as he pulled his lighter from his pocket and moved to light the cigarette in his mouth. Before she could stop herself, she had angrily knocked the lighter from his hand. "You can fill your own lungs with smoke, but I won't have you filling mine, my children's or Mulder's. You do that on your own damn time. I'll ask you one more time. How did you get in here?"

"Only the Assistant Director's room is guarded, Dana. Not Fox's," he replied coolly. She scowled at him, crossing her arms protectively. "The nurses certainly had no objection to a father visiting his dying son in the hospital."

"You've never been a father to him," she ranted, wanted to scream at him. She would've killed to have her gun on her at that precise moment in time, just so she could shoot the bastard.

"No, I haven't," he said. "But I've come here to redeem myself. I must tell you... there is a cure for Mulder's cancer." Scully felt her heart beat accelerate as he reached into the pocket of his coat, and pulled out a small, silver vial.

"Why do this?" she questioned. "Are you showing this to me only to take it away? Giving me a glimpse of it before snatching it back? I don't have the stamina for this," she said. "I won't stand for it."

A strange smile formed on the man's lips, and he shook his head. "I don't want Mulder dead," he said, turning the vial over in his hands before offering it to Scully. "I never have. Mulder is more useful to me than he could ever know. But now, I'm dying. My associates on the Project are all dead. Our once powerful organization has come down to just myself.

"We were misled, Agent Scully. We believed we would be working alongside the colonists for a long time, for partial colonization, but then global domination came into play with the mutation of the virus. We had to end it. So we did. There is no more threat to the lives of the citizens of the planet Earth. The super soldiers are gone, as are any traces of the Project, and the many other operations that have stemmed from it. It is all over." Scully regarded him skeptically, wanting so badly to believe what it was he was telling her.

"Why this sudden spirit of altruism?" she questioned. "Giving me all of this information that you and your co-conspirators worked so hard to hide for so many years... And why give me the cure for his cancer?" She still hadn't extended her hand to take the vial from him.

"Have you ever wondered," Spender began, studying her in the half-light of Mulder's hospital room, "how it is that you, a woman diagnosed as barren over three years ago stand here in your fifth month of pregnancy?" Scully felt her heart jump into her throat. She wanted to know just where he was going with this. And so she asked.

"I've said it once already; I stand before you a dying man, Agent Scully. A man who has done terrible and torturous things to people all over the world his entire life. But now, as the last man standing, so to speak, I have a chance to redeem myself."

"You'd have to do a lot of redeeming to get you out of the dimension of Hell you're headed for," she replied coldly. He smiled that strange smile once again.

"I'm not kidding myself. I'll never make it to Heaven, if there even is such a thing. But there are things I need to do before I die. I'm not about to leave this world with unfinished business. You and Mulder, your quests are for all of the right reasons. I'm sure that you've questioned your pregnancy, Agent Scully, and its conception. Based on the battery of tests you've run since you got that positive test result, I _know_ that you have questions, doubts, and worries. But I can assure you that your children are normal. Their conception was normal, and your pregnancy is normal. My doctors made sure of that," Spender said, rolling the vial back and forth between his fingers, going from studying it to Scully.

Her eyes widened, and she bristled. His doctors? What had he done?

"Almost a year and a half ago, you went away with me in search of a cure-all. You fell asleep in the car and woke the next morning in your pajamas. I'm well aware of what you believe I did to you. That night, as you slept, I consulted with my doctors about giving you back your fertility. It could be done. It was as simple as switching the chip in your neck with one that served a different function. The chip in your neck that got rid of your cancer also made you barren. This new chip keeps you healthy, and repaired the damage done to your ovaries, allowing them to once again produce healthy ova." Scully's breath caught in her throat.

"So you're saying that I could have another child if I wanted to?" she tried to keep the emotion out of her voice.

"Yes," he replied honestly. "You could."

"I need to sit down," she said, her head spinning. He pulled a chair over for her, and she sank into it.

"You may not believe in my altruism, but sitting here, in the condition that you are, with the test results you've received assuring you that your children are healthy, how can you argue that I'm telling you the truth?" She closed her eyes, running a hand over her belly to calm her kicking children. She froze, feeling a hand on hers. Her eyes snapped open, and she found Spender turning her hand over, and placing the vial in it. Her skin was practically crawling at his touch, but she refrained from pulling away. "Take it, Agent Scully. The world needs him as much as you do." Scully stared at the vial in her hand as she heard the door behind her whisper shut.

-x-

Author's Notes: Well, here's Chapter 15. It's relatively short, but this was a quick update for this story, lol! There will more than likely be around twenty chapters by the time this story is finished. I hope you're still reading, and I'm DYING for feedback!!! Please let me know if you love/hate/ want to have this story's babies, LOL. Onward and forward!


	16. Chance

Title: What He Knew

Author: Gillian Leigh

Disclaimer: Please see an earlier chapter.

Author's Notes: I owe you all so much, my loyal readers. I know you're glad to see an update, but I have a feeling... Well, just read the chapter.

-x-

"Doesn't this thing go any faster?" Walter Skinner queried impatiently, drumming his fingers on the armrest of his wheel chair. Behind him, Kimberley rolled her eyes.

"It's an _elevator_, Walter. We'll get there when we get there," she replied, putting her hand on his shoulder.

"Why do I have to go in this stupid chair, Kim? I'm perfectly capable of walking. I'm doing well in physical therapy... my doctor said so," he said, twisting around to look up at her. She smiled at him and kissed his forehead. The door opened on seventh floor Oncology, and Skinner and Kim could see Scully, now six months pregnant, animatedly talking to three men. Kim had gotten to know them during Skinner's absence as they attempted to locate him, and Skinner knew _of_ them.

"You're supposed to rest, sweetheart," she said, pushing his chair out of the elevator and down the corridor toward Scully. He didn't respond as he watched Scully hug each of the Lone Gunmen. Frohike's embrace lingered perhaps a bit too long, earning him a small glare from Scully, which surprisingly turned into a smile as she waved them into Mulder's hospital room. She turned and saw the two of them approaching, her smile grew.

"Sir," she said, as soon as he and Kimberley approached. "Kim."

"What is it, Dana?" Kimberley questioned, looking at Scully anxiously. Scully looked as if she was ready to burst.

"I have good news... great news actually..." she said, fiddling with her hands. There was a moment as she seemed to gather herself together. "Mulder's cancer has gone into remission." Skinner's head was spinning so much he barely heard Kim's astonished gasp, and hardly saw the two embrace.

"Dana that's so wonderful," Kim said, feeling her eyes water with emotion. Scully felt her eyes fill with joyous tears again as she hugged the woman who had become one of her closest friends in the past months. After a moment together, the two parted, and Scully wiped her eyes.

"You can go in if you'd like. He's talking to the guys, and John and Monica," she said.

"Aren't you going in?" Skinner asked, finding his voice again. Scully smiled once more.

"I'm just going down to the lobby to meet his mother and mine," she replied. "I have to make sure that they're cleared by security. I'll be back in a few minutes. Go ahead in. I'm sure he'll be glad to see you two."

As Kimberley wheeled him toward Mulder's open door, Skinner had a flashback to a very similar moment in this very hospital. He remembered then how Scully and Mulder had distrusted him, and felt saddened at the thought that he had done nothing to earn their trust, especially after his latest admission to years of acts of indiscretion. That thought was disheartening. He wanted to be able to say that he had gained their trust and respect over the years, even after a period of distrust, but now, it seemed, he was starting from square one.

Mulder looked up, and his eyes locked with Skinner's. The Assistant Director felt his heartbeat quicken.

"Come in, Sir," Mulder said quietly, looking past the others in the room. Skinner nodded, and felt his heart lighten. With that phrase, he had been given the chance to begin again.

-x-

Mulder Residence

April 1st

1:30 p.m.

Tearing the wrapping paper off of another gift, Scully held up the matching teddy bears, one pink, one blue. The pink bear was embossed with the name "Nora Katherine" and the blue with "Adam Fox". Smiling, Scully glanced across the room at Monica Reyes and smiled gratefully.

"Thank you, Monica. I'm sure the twins will love them." She put the bears back in their box and handed it to her mother. To her left, her friend Ellen passed her another present, and as she carefully removed the wrapping paper, her sister-in-law Tara spoke up.

"How are you feeling, Dana?" she asked, bouncing her two year-old daughter, Elise, on her knee. Scully smiled tiredly.

"Exhausted and ready to pop," she replied, running a hand over her belly.

"The last six weeks always seem the longest," her mother replied, gently. She patted her daughter's hand. "Especially with twins."

"Oh wonderful," Scully said, fanning her face with her hand. "I'm a little warm," she added. "Could you please turn down the heat a little, Mom?" Maggie smilingly obliged, and turned down the thermostat. She rejoined the circle of women in her daughter and son-in-law's living room, and resumed her place beside her daughter. When she moved to hand Scully a present, she noted the odd expression on her daughter's face.

"Dana, what is it?" Maggie asked, looking at Dana questioningly. Her daughter's only response was a gasp as she clutched her belly. She was clearly in a lot of pain. In a panic, Maggie slid off the couch and onto her knees before her daughter. "Dana. Dana, look at me. What's wrong?" When she got no verbal response from her daughter, only a slight shake of her head, she turned to her daughter's frightened guests. "Call 911!"

She didn't have to say it twice.

Casey's Bar

1:34 p.m.

"So how's it feel to be a married man, Mulder?" Langly said, finally approaching the subject of Mulder's marriage to Scully, a topic Frohike would rather not have to hear about. He was still sulking at his loss of any chance of ever getting with Scully. Mulder took a long look at the gold band on his ring finger.

"It's nice. ," he replied. Today he was short on words, though he wasn't totally sure why.

"What made you decide to get married now? I mean, why not wait a few more months?" Byers questioned, sipping his Coke. He was the only non-drinker of the group, and the day's "Sober Sally". Mulder's eyes met his.

"After everything that happened with my illness, we realized that time is not something we want to waste. I told Scully that I'd be fine with waiting until after the babies are born, but she said we could do it right away," he replied. "A week later, we were officially married." Frohike noted the smile Mulder wore, and scowled, crossing his arms.

"God, Frohike, get over it. You haven't had a chance with Scully in... well... ever," Langly said, rolling his eyes. "Just grow up and get over it. For God's sake, we're all going to be these kids' godfathers. The least you could do is be grateful."

The bartender, still blonde and black-vested, shouted over to their table before Frohike had a chance to snap back at his blonde counterpart. "Hey, Spooky!" she called. Mulder looked over, and she nodded toward him. "Phone call for you."

Puzzled, he got up and headed over to the bar. The bartender handed him the receiver.

"Hello?" he questioned. Who would be looking for him at Casey's?

"Agent Mulder? It's Monica Reyes."

"It's not 'Agent' Mulder anymore, Monica, just plain old Mulder, remember? I teach at Quantico," he said.

"Mulder," Reyes began again. "You need to get to the hospital. Something's wrong with Dana."

"Oh God," Mulder said, choking on the words. "What happened?"

"I'm not sure... we were having the baby shower, and she just doubled over in pain. They took her by ambulance to Northeast Georgetown. Her mother rode along..." Mulder's heart was thumping so loudly in his ears he could scarcely here what Reyes was telling him.

"By the time the paramedics got to the house she'd passed out..." He had to lean on the bar for support, earning him a startled look from the bartender. "And she was bleeding... there was a lot of blood, Mulder..." His grip on the phone grew white-knuckled.

"I'm on my way," he said quickly before hanging up. Shaking, he turned to the Gunmen. "How fast can you get me to Northeast Georgetown, Byers?"

"What is it?" Byers questioned, rising to his feet. Frohike stood up so fast he knocked his chair over, and Langly followed suit.

Mulder's mouth felt like cotton. "Something's wrong with my wife."

-x-

Author's Notes: ::ducks flying objects YET again:: Sorry about this one guys. I love that you're still reading this, and putting up with all of my crap. I apologize for the long wait, but I had to do my Senior Project... which if I don't get at least a C on, I don't graduate... so this story took a major backseat to school. But now that my project is done, my senioritis is hitting full force, so the updates on this story will be more frequent, especially with my upcoming Thanksgiving break. Look for chapter 17 very soon! And it'll be much worth the wait!

Thanks!!!!


	17. Big Plans

Title: What He Knew

Author: Gillian Leigh

Disclaimer: Please see an earlier installment.

Author's Notes: This is the last full chapter. Only the epilogue is left, and I've already got it written, so send me some feedback and I'll post it tomorrow!!! :o)

-x-

Northeast Georgetown Hospital  
April 2  
8:39 p.m.

He didn't know why he'd said yes. Dr. Rosenthal asked him if he wanted to be the one to give the news to his wife, and he had agreed. He had to be the one to tell her that their babies were dead. Their son and daughter were both dead.

Sitting beside her bed, he buried his head in his hands. He raised his head and looked at his wife, lying in her hospital bed while her body recovered from the trauma inflicted upon it. She looked so small and helpless, especially without the pregnant belly he'd grown used to seeing her with these past months. He wiped away the tears that were sliding down his cheeks, and rose from the chair. He needed to take a walk to try and clear his head.

Lost in his thoughts, Mulder wandered the hospital aimlessly. He was an emotional train-wreck, and had been since arriving at the hospital and finding out that they'd take his wife in for emergency surgery.

He and Maggie had taken turns pacing the floor of the hallway. When he had arrived, it had been 2:00, nearly twenty five minutes into her surgery, and when the doctor came out of the OR, a grim expression on her face, the two had stopped dead in their tracks, hoping for good news.

"Is Dana alright?" Mulder had asked frantically, as his mother-in-law took his hand.

"Yes, Dana's fine," Dr. Rosenthal had responded, trying to sound calm. The grim line her mouth made prompted Mulder to continue in his line of questioning.

"And what about the babies?"

"I'm sorry, Mr. Mulder... there was nothing we could do for them..." At that moment, Mulder had collapsed into the hard plastic hospital chair, and Maggie, sitting down beside him, and put her arms around him. Fighting back tears, he continued to listen as Dr. Rosenthal gave the clinical reasons for the twins' deaths. "Dana suffered what is called a placental abruption. The placenta separates from the uterine wall, cutting off the oxygen supply to the babies and flooding her womb with blood. She was unconscious when she arrived at the hospital. By the time we got her into surgery it was too late to save the babies. They'd gone too long without oxygen." The doctor paused, and Mulder's head slumped onto his mother-in-law's shoulder. With a moment as sad as this, even the doctor couldn't keep her clinical sense of detachment, and had to wipe away a tear. "I'm sorry," she had barely managed before walking away.

And so they two had remained, Maggie Scully, and Fox Mulder, comforting one another in the hospital hallway--both parents of lost children.

He found himself standing in front of the nursery. The babies were all beautiful, wrapped in their pink or blue blankets. Closing his eyes, Mulder tried to imagine what it would've been like to come down here and see his two babies in their side-by-side bassinets, with their names on them. Nora Mulder, Adam Mulder.

"Which one's yours?" Startled, Mulder turned to his right, and found a man standing beside him, about his height, with sandy hair.

"None of them are mine..." he replied. The man smiled, apparently oblivious to his somber demeanor.

"Sorry about that. You just had that 'new dad' look about you," he replied, extending his hand. "Carl Waters."

"Fox Mulder," he replied.

"That one's mine," he said, pointing to a baby girl on the end of the first row; the name on her bassinet said only "Girl, Waters". "She's our fourth; our first girl." Mulder nodded, pretending to be interested.

"Congratulations," he said, and turned, walking away. Turning the corner, he came to the elevator, and stood for a moment, unsure of where to go next. When the elevator doors opened, Dr. Rosenthal stepped out.

"Mr. Mulder? Are you alright?" she questioned, resting a hand on his arm.

"No," he replied. Even he was surprised at his honesty.

"Are you sure you don't want me to tell Dana?" she asked, her voice low, as they walked down the hall. He shook his head.

"That would be easier... but I still think I should do it. It's going to be hard enough, but we'll make it through." He sighed. Dr. Rosenthal nodded, and they paused outside Dana's hospital room.

"And you're sure that you don't...want to see them?" she queried. Mulder almost asked 'who', but his stomach lurched when he remembered. He didn't know how he could've forgotten, even for a moment. Perhaps because he wanted to believe it never happened.

"No. I want to wait until Dana knows... then maybe we will..." Dr. Rosenthal nodded again.

"Just let me know." With that, she turned and walked away, disappearing into the Staff Lounge.

When Mulder closed the door in Scully's hospital room, the sound of the 'click' made her open her eyes.

"Mulder?" she queried softly. Instinctively, her hands moved to her abdomen, and she found it flat. Her eyes widened in panic, and the monitors she was hooked up to registered her increased heart rate and breathing. "The babies? What happened? Where are Nora and Adam?!"

Dread filled Mulder's stomach, mimicking the sensation of swallowing dozens of ice cubes. He walked over and sat beside her bed, taking her hand in his.

"Mulder? Tell me where the twins are. Tell me!" she pleaded.

"Dana... sweetheart, you need to calm down," he began softly. She yanked her hand back, and looked at him, still wildly panicked.

"Don't tell me to calm down, Fox. I'll calm down when you tell me where our children are!" she exclaimed loudly.

"This isn't something I want to have to yell. I-I don't even know if I'll be able to say it..." he said. Hearing his words, she practically froze, and looked him right in the eye. Just as he'd asked, she calmed down.

"Oh no..." she said, remembering her baby shower. The pain had been so unbearable. Something was wrong; she'd known it then. Before he even started to speak, she knew what he was going to say, and her tears fell, hot and angry. "Oh no..." she whispered. Mulder readied himself for the task at hand, and took a deep breath.

"Yesterday, when you were in all of that pain, you had what is called a placental abruption, where the placenta separates from the uterine wall. Dr. Rosenthal said that it flooded your womb with blood and cut off the twins oxygen supply. By the time they got you into surgery to do a C-section... it was...." he paused, fighting back a sob, "...too late. They were already gone..." She squeezed her eyes shut, and freed a few more tears in the process. Covering her face in her hands, she let out a wail that made Mulder cry again.

"No!" she sobbed. "Not my babies. It's not fair!" After a moment, she threw her arms around Mulder's neck, and hung onto him, crying and muttering incoherently into his shoulder. He held onto her, and let his own tears fall. "Why?" she asked, lifting her head off of his shoulder and looking into his eyes. "Why?"

"I don't know," he said, stroking her hair. "I just don't know..."

Standing outside the door, Dr. Rosenthal crossed her arms. She didn't even have to hear it all to know what was being said. The two of them had been torn apart by this, and these wounds would take too long to heal. She turned and walked away, remaining decidedly indifferent. Walking down the hall she turned and entered her personal office, using her key. Even though it was dark outside, the shades were drawn over the windows, and only her small desk lamp lit the room. Closing the door behind her and re-locking it.

"Paranoid, Josie? You're more like your brother than you know..." Josephine gasped and dropped her keys. Startled, she turned to face the man seated at her desk.

"You scared me," she stated simply, placing a hand over her heart.

"It wasn't my intent," he said. "I was just waiting for you to finish your shift. We need to discuss what happens next." CGB Spender rose slowly out of her chair and walked over to the window, drawing back the curtains so he could see out.

"No. You should leave them closed," she insisted, practically running to the window. Her father turned and looked at her peculiarly.

"Why does it matter? Everyone in this hospital works for me, Josie. The only people we have to hide our intentions from are the patients," he replied, calmly. He pulled a cigarette from the breast pocket of his suit jacket and lit it. Josephine still looked uneasy. She crossed her arms and walked toward the back of her office.

"I'm just worried. I'm afraid that they'll find out... that somehow they'll find out what we're doing before we're finished, and...." she trailed off, waving her hand in the air. "I don't want everything we're working for to go up in smoke."

"I know you're concerned," Spender began, "but my men are thorough. You've witnessed that. Your brother Fox and his darling wife Dana won't ever find out the truth about Nora and Adam, just like they've never found out the truth about Emily, or Samantha. Everything they think they know has been smoke and mirrors."

"So you think that they'll believe my explanation of the twins' deaths fully?" she questioned, walking toward him again.

"I'm not saying that they won't question what happened. Fox has questioned his sister's disappearance for years, and Dana certainly questioned Emily's death, especially when she found that her casket was filled with sandbags the day of her funeral... but they won't ever find out the truth. The fact that Dana was unconscious, and that Fox was not in the operating room with her is a great help. Neither was able to see anything that would give them evidence of foul play. They'll never suspect that their twins are still alive." Putting out his cigarette, he turned and walked toward the back of the office, and toward the two incubators that stood there, side by side. Each was lit by a soft white light, and the two babies slumbered peacefully. He noticed that Nora had tried to move to the left side of her incubator, and Adam had tried to move to the right side of his, like they wanted to be close together.

A moment later, Josephine joined him, and the two stood side by side studying the sleeping babies. "They're so important," she said, gesturing toward the twins. "Do you think that they'll ever know just how important they are to us? To the world?"

"Not for a very long time," he said.

"Is this right?" she questioned, having a momentary attack of conscience. "I mean... we're taking these babies from their parents... tearing apart their family. Is it worth it?" Spender studied his daughter in the dim light from inside the office.

"Don't worry, Josie," he said, turning his attention to his grandchildren again. "I've got big plans for Nora and Adam Mulder."


	18. Epilogue: Sand and Smoke

Title: What He Knew

Author: Gillian Leigh

Disclaimer: Please see an earlier chapter.

Author's Notes: Okay, everybody, this is it. The end of this story! Hard to believe, but here it is!!

April 4

3:27 p.m.

The church was quiet except for the words of the priest. The mourners sat in the pews, murmuring the Lord's Prayer. The group was small for the enormous church, barely filling one row. Closest to the two tiny caskets were Mulder and Scully. She was leaning heavily against his shoulder, and his large hand practically swallowed her smaller one. Beside them sat Scully's mother, and her two brothers and their wives, and then came Skinner and Kim, Doggett and Reyes, the Lone Gunmen, and finally Dr. Rosenthal, whom had been asked by the grieving parents to attend.

The service was short, and as the mourners rose to give their condolences and leave, no one noticed the lanky, gray-haired man slip out the door and into the hustle and bustle of midday traffic.

Inside the church, once all of the mourners had gone, Mulder and Scully had a conversation somewhat like the one they'd had years before when Emily died.

"I don't want to believe that they're really gone," Scully said, as they two stood before the small, white caskets. There should never be a need for caskets so small. Mulder sighed, and wiped away a tear with the back of his hand.

"I don't want to believe it either.... I keep thinking... I keep hoping that I'll wake up and find out that all of this was nothing but a terrible nightmare," he said, rubbing her back. She nodded. There was a moment's hesitation before she spoke next.

"I--I'd like to see them one last time," she whispered, looking to her husband for approval. He nodded.

"Of course..."

Slowly, Scully stepped over to the casket with pink flowers on top-Nora's- and undid the latch. She slowly opened the lid, and practically leapt backwards. Her cry was strangled, half caught in her throat. Alarmed, Mulder rushed over and looked in the casket.

Empty. Nora wasn't inside. Feeling his heart racing in his chest, he rushed to the other casket and opened it. It too was empty. Reaching her hand inside Nora's casket, Scully found only sand and the cross, her cross, the one she'd insisted that Nora be buried wearing. Tears stung her eyes. Practically knocking Mulder over to get to Adam's casket, she found the same thing. Sand and the other cross, Missy's cross.

Holding the two identical crosses in her hand, Scully turned to face Mulder, her face awash with tears. She opened her mouth to speak, but no words came as she buried her face in his chest and sobbed. Mulder stood unmoving as his wife clung to him, soaking the front of his black suit jacket with her hot tears. In the air he noticed the faint scent of cigarette smoke.

-THE END-

Additional Author's Notes: Thank you to everyone who read and reviewed this story! Your input was greatly appreciated. I know most people didn't expect an ending like this from me... the self-titled Queen of Storybook Endings. I thought I'd give this a more X-Files-ish feel, at least in the ending, and BTW, this means that I left it open for a sequel. Perhaps with enough persuasion I might write one, and answer your questions. Well, if you loved it, hated it -whatever- just leave me a review (or send me an email!) and let me know. Your input matters either way!

Thank you soooooooo much!

Au revoir,

Gillian Leigh


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